All Roads Lead To Where I Always Should Have Been
by queenb81385
Summary: Tristan's gone and it's affecting Rory in a way she never thought it would... TRORY
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One 

The words _I'd kiss you goodbye but your boyfriend is watching_ keep reverberating back and forth through her head, making it impossible for her to close her eyes and find the slumber that she so desperately craved. She closed her eyes hoping that for some insane reason it would actually help but all she saw when she did that is his face and the look in his eyes as he repeats the annoying phrase again and again. Her eyes snap open immediately and a groan slips past her lips before she can stop it. The fact that he was having any affect on her whatsoever was nerve racking. She reached over, flipped her lamp on and reached out for the closest book to her. She gets through half a sentence before she realizes exactly what she's reading. She let out an angry half groan half growl and launched the book across the room, shrieking as it collided with her mirror. The sound of glass shattering had her mom throwing open the door, concern etched into her face. "Rory what the hell!"

She quickly got out of bed and start walking over towards the shattered mirror. "I'm sorry…" she started to say

"Don't move!" she snaps, "You're going to get glass stuck in your feet."

She nodded absently and began looking around the room for a pair of shoes. She found a pair of slip on tennis shoes and placed them on her feet. "Better?" she asked saucily

Lorelai rolled her eyes and slipped on a pair of shoes herself. "Yes, and you can drop the attitude. I'm not the one in my room breaking mirrors at midnight." She walked over to meet her at the mirror and reached down to pick up the glass. She looked at her curiously and then held up the book. "What did Romeo and Juliet ever do to you?"

A groan slipped past her lips as she reached for the book and launched it out the door into the kitchen. "Nothing." Rory snapped and then finished picking up the glass.

"Well whatever it is I doubt that it was Shakespeare's fault." She said smiling slightly

Rory nodded. "You're right it's not." She looked down and noticed that all the glass had been picked up. Lorelai held out her hand for Rory to give her the collected glass. She placed it gently in her hand so she didn't cut her.

Lorelai threw the glass away and looked back at her daughter. She knew something was bothering her. She had known something was bothering her the second she walked off the stage after her act was over but hadn't wanted to pry because Dean was there. Since Dean was not here now though she thought she should try. "Rory are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'm going to bed. Goodnight." Rory told her before crawling back into my bed and pulling the blanket up over my head.

"Ror?"

"I said goodnight Mom."

Lorelai sighed and shut the door. As soon as the door was shut Rory threw her blanket off of her in frustration. She looked over in the direction of where her mirror used to be and couldn't help but think that the events of tonight were all a prophetic part of the seven years of a bad luck that comes with breaking mirrors.

xxxxxx

The three and half hours of sleep that Rory had gotten had worked wonders for her mood only not the way she had hoped it would. She had woken up just as cranky as she had been before she had gone to sleep. She walked out of her bedroom and the first thing she had came into contact with was her book. She looked up at Lorelai who was sitting down drinking coffee at the table smiling guiltily. "Did you put this here?" Rory asked from beside the coffee maker

"It was in the middle of the floor. Besides I thought we agreed that Shakespeare didn't do anything wrong." Lorelai stated calmly

Rory shook her head slowly. "But why is it right next to the coffee maker? I thought it was obvious that I didn't want see it, but you put it in the first place I'd go."

Lorelai sighed. "I didn't want it to get messed up on the floor."

"It's a book. I have others." Rory snapped before storming out of the kitchen and back into her room, leaving the book on the counter.

Lorelai shook her head and mumbled _What in the hell has gotten into her_? Lorelai stood up and began to follow after her but stopped when Rory's door opened again suddenly. Lorelai took this as a positive sign until three books flew past her head and the door slammed just as suddenly as it had opened. Lorelai bent down and picked up all the books, noticing that they were all copies of Romeo and Juliet. Picking up one in particular she forced herself into Rory's room. "Rory, are you aware that you just threw your antique copy of Romeo and Juliet out the door?"

"Yes." Rory stated calmly

Lorelai groaned. "We don't throw antique books across the kitchen."

Rory nodded. "You're right." She said reaching for the book

"Of course I'm right." Lorelai said smiling

Rory took the book out of her hands and walked towards the window. She reached over and opened the window and threw the book out of it. "Better?" she asked cheekily

Lorelai looked at Rory confusion written all over her face. "No." she choked out

Rory gathered up the stuff she needed to take her shower and breezed past Lorelai. "I don't know what to tell you then Mom. I'm taking a shower."

Lorelai shrugged and followed after Rory. "What is wrong with you!" she demanded

"Nothing." Rory snapped

"I don't believe you." Lorelai stated firmly

"That's your prerogative." Rory said shutting the bathroom door and locked it behind her so that Lorelai couldn't follow

Lorelai groaned when she heard the water cut on. "I'm going to Luke's. I expect you there for breakfast, without the attitude!" she yelled

"Whatever." Rory snapped

Lorelai grabbed her purse and slammed the door on her way out.

xxxxxx

Lorelai slammed the diner door shut as she entered gaining everyone's attention. "Lorelai what in the hell did my door ever do to you!" Luke demanded

Lorelai groaned. "Nothing. I need coffee."

Luke looked at her closely, taking in the look of anger and the obvious look of upset on her face. "Yeah, Ok." He replied knowing that now was not the time for their patented 'coffee's going to kill you' banter "Where's Rory?"

"She'll be here." Lorelai said stiffly

Luke poured Lorelai's coffee. "Everything ok?"

"Everything's fine Luke."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked concerned

"Positive. Rory will be here any minute."

Luke nodded and walked back to the counter still unconvinced that Lorelai was fine.

xxxxxx

Rory finished getting dressed and exited her bedroom again. She knew that she was out of line with Lorelai before and she felt bad, but she couldn't shake the bad mood. She went back into her room and grabbed a box. She went over to the kitchen counter where Lorelai had stacked the books she had thrown and placed them inside and then went outside and brought the book outside her window in placing it gently in the box as well. Then she went and got the Juliet costume and put it in the box too. She closed the box up and placed it in the top of her closet before walking out and heading towards the diner.

She sighed as she walked past the dance studio. Memories of them arguing outside of it just two days ago floated into the front of her mind. She could almost hear her herself telling him that she wasn't surprised he had to join their group, that anyone he had ever dated would have known better to let him join theirs. And she could almost feel his face fall and hear him call himself pathetic. A small tear fell from her eye as she began to briskly walk past Patty's. She entered the diner and dropped into the chair next to Lorelai. "Coffee?"

Lorelai handed her the to-go cup Luke had brought her when he saw Rory approaching. "You need to hurry up. You're going to miss your bus."

"I know that." She snapped

"The attitude has to go Ror. Did something happen last night?"

"I don't even want to think about last night." Rory said softly barely loud enough for Lorelai to hear

"Did you and Dean have a fight?"

"This has nothing to do with Dean mom." Rory said before looking up at the window and spotting Dean tapping his watch, "I have to go." she said and without another word was out the door and walking towards her bus.

xxxxxx

Dean looked over at Rory and he knew something was wrong. "Everything ok?"

Rory nodded absently. "Yeah."

"Do you want to do something tonight?" Dean asked hopefully

"Dean, its Monday. I'm studying. I always study on Mondays. You know that." Rory said exasperated

"Maybe we could study together." He offered

"I tend to view studying as a solitary event." Rory said. Her feet automatically stopped moving and her memory was plummeting back to the very first time she had uttered those words. Thankfully her bus arrived in front of her. "I have to go." she said suddenly and getting on the bus without kissing Dean goodbye.

xxxxxx

Rory stepped off of her bus and onto Chilton's grounds reluctantly. She hadn't expected Chilton to feel as different as it did without him. She slowly walked to her locker and once she got there her breath caught in her chest and her heart felt a twinge when the realization that he wasn't going to be at her locker in the morning anymore sunk in. That he was going to be following her around day in and day out calling her 'Mary', something she hadn't known at the time didn't even bother her anymore. That he wasn't going to be there to help her get her locker open when it wouldn't budge. When she passed his old locker she remembered seeing his face fall and his expression harden when she had told him that everything was fine between her and Dean, a lie since Dean was becoming more and more possessive thanks to Jess. Her head dipped down slightly as she walked into her Shakespeare class, her hatred for Shakespeare growing every second.

AN: Read and Review please…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

Paris looked over in Rory's general direction and noticed that Rory hadn't written a single note the whole class period. In fact it appeared that Rory wasn't even paying attention to what was going on around her at all. The bell rang signaling the end of class and everyone began scurrying to get out the room except for Rory. Paris sighed and walked over to her. She tapped her on the shoulder and when she still got no response she began to shake her forcefully.

"Paris what the hell…" Rory started to yell but then looked around the room and noticed they were alone. "Where'd everyone go?"

"Class is over Gilmore. What's with you today?" Paris asked

Rory shook her head and began gathering her things. "Nothing."

"Well then I suggest you get to lunch before it's over and you haven't got anything to eat." Paris suggested as she watched Rory scamper off in the direction of the cafeteria

Rory rushed to her locker and dropped off her books and then entered the cafeteria. Once she sat down with her food she realized that she had made a mistake and she should have ate in the library. The entire school was talking about him. There were rumors spreading like wildfire. Her favorite so far was that he had disgraced the family so badly that they had sent him away to a Swiss boarding school for boys. The cafeteria was abuzz with talks of what he could have done that was that bad enough to be sent away. The guys couldn't help but be glad he was gone, it helped their chances with the female population but the girls they were a different story. If she had to hear one more brain dead bimbo say how much they were going to miss him she was going to scream. She was so preoccupied in her thoughts of him that she never noticed anyone sitting down next to her.

"I hear you were the last one that spoke to Tristan before he left Chilton." Came a female voice from beside her

Rory turned around to see Summer sitting next to her. "I guess. I don't know. I don't exactly keep track of Tristan's whereabouts." Rory said acidly

"So what did he say to you?" she asked practically cooing

"He said that whatever he said to me before he left was private and that all the stupid sluts that come up to me and ask what he said to me can all just go to hell." She said storming away from the table and out of the cafeteria leaving Summer and her entire group of friends that had been standing around speechless

"Looks like someone was a little bit more than affected by Tristan's absence today." Summer snickered causing the girls to laugh

xxxxxx

Rory got off her bus and immediately was bombarded by Dean. "Hey Rory. I brought you a coffee." He said presenting a coffee cup form Luke's.

Rory nodded and accepted the cup immediately swallowing half the cup. "Thanks."

Dean smiled. "Anything for you." They continued to walk in the direction of Rory's house in complete silence. "So… I know that you're studying tonight but I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me first?" Dean asked practically begging

Rory sighed. "I have a paper to write tonight. I won't have time." She lied.

"What if I stop by with take out and you can just take a break?" Dean argued

Rory sighed again and ran her fingers through her hair. "I won't have time. I'm sorry Dean. Really I am. I would love to go have dinner with you but I just can't."

Dean's face fell soundlessly. "It's ok. I'll just uh… call you later." He said standing at her porch

Rory nodded wordlessly. "Bye."

"Bye." Dean replied to Rory's already retreating form as she closed the door behind herself. Dean sighed and began making his way towards the diner where he knew Lorelai would be. Once he got there he saw Lorelai sitting at the counter irritating Luke. He walked over to her and calmly asked, "What is wrong with Rory?"

Lorelai swiveled in her seat and looked at Dean thoughtfully, "That's funny. I was going to ask you the same thing."

"What?" Dean asked confused

Lorelai stood up with her coffee and gestured that Dean follow her to a table. She sat back down and waited for Dean to do so as well. Once he did she sighed. "She's been in this weird mood ever since she walked off the stage last night. I assumed that you and her must have got in a fight or something."

"No, no fight. I don't know what's wrong with her. She wouldn't have dinner with me tonight because she said she had to study. When I suggested that we study together she snapped at me that studying was a solitary activity and got on her bus. Then after school today I bring her coffee and suggest I bring over some take out and she can take a break and eat and she gives me an excuse about having to write a paper and walks inside before I can even tell her bye." Dean rambled

Lorelai sat silent trying to think of what could be bothering Rory. "I don't know what's wrong with her Dean. I'll try and talk to her but this morning when I tried she threw books at me."

"She threw books at you? That doesn't sound like Rory. Not that I haven't seen her throw things before but a book, never. Rory would never endanger one of her books." Dean said skeptically

"Well she did. Three of them to be exact. Including her antique copy of Romeo and Juliet. Actually come to think of it they were all copies of Romeo and Juliet. Whatever it is that's wrong must have something to do with whatever happened last night." Lorelai said thinking back to anything that had been out of the ordinary last night. The only thing her brain could pick up was the absence of the actual Romeo, Tristan. _Come to think of it Rory never told me why he wasn't there _Lorelai thought to herself. Then it was as if a light bulb cut on above her head. _Whatever's wrong has to have something to do with Tristan._ "I'll figure it out. I'm sure she'll call you though Dean." Lorelai said standing up and walking out of the diner leaving Dean sitting there completely confused

xxxxxx

Lorelai threw open Rory's door to find her sitting on the bed doing her homework. She walked over to the bed and grabbed Rory's biology book away from her. "What the hell?" Rory snapped

"You can have this back as soon as you tell me what I want to hear." Lorelai said forcefully

Rory's eyes narrowed at Lorelai. The last time anyone had taken her books and taunted her with them was Tristan and Lorelai knew that. A small barely audible gasp left Rory's mouth but was caught by Lorelai. "Stop." Rory choked out

"I'm right aren't I?" Lorelai said softly

Rory reached out and snatched her book back. "I don't know what you're talking about." she said through gritted teeth

"I am. I knew it. I'm right. This mood. This funk you are in. It's because of him." Lorelai smiled widely

"I'll say it again. I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't you mean who?" Lorelai asked knowingly

"Leave me alone please. I have homework to do."

"Any papers to write?" Lorelai asked

"No there's no paper. Why?" Rory asked confused

"I'm just a little confused. I mean Dean said you were pulling a hermit tonight because you had a paper to write and now you're telling me there's no paper. You can see where the confusion comes in right?"

Rory sighed knowing she'd just been caught in a lie. "Dean must have misheard me. I said I had a paper to research for." Rory lied

Lorelai nodded. "Oh ok." She said smiling. She reached back out and snatched the biology book back and ran upstairs with it while screaming, "You didn't tell me what I wanted to hear Mini-Me."

Rory groaned and chased after Lorelai. "Mom I need that book." She said through gritted teeth while standing at the top of the stairs.

"I told you what you had to do Ror. What is going on with you? The attitude is beginning to border on completely aggravating. I won't take much more of it."

Rory groaned. "Well I'm sorry if my mood isn't satisfying your desires. I'll try to buck up and smile a little bit more for you." Rory snapped. Deciding to give up on getting her book back at the moment she turned on her heel and stormed back down the stairs and back into her room slamming and locking the door behind her.

"Well that worked Lorelai. Congratulations." Lorelai said out loud to herself

AN: Read and Review….please….


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Once the door was locked behind her she slumped to the floor her back pressing hard against it. She pulled her knees up flush with her chest and buried her head on top of them. _Not going to cry... not going to cry_ she kept repeating to herself but wasn't surprised when her vision began to cloud and she felt moisture pouring from her eyes onto her knees. She sat there for about ten minutes crying until she suddenly felt a very different emotion, anger. _Why in the hell am I crying? He made my life hell for a year! Why do I care what happens to him!_ She immediately stopped crying and stood up. She walked back over to her desk and began studying again, absorbing herself in calculus.

xxxxxx

Lorelai came downstairs about ten minutes after Rory had barricaded herself in her room. She stood outside of Rory's door and listened to her daughter sob. She felt her heart breaking every time Rory gasped for air only to have it followed directly by another gut wrenching cry. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as well until she heard Rory stop. She slowly walked over the Rory's door and knocked. "Ror?"

Rory sighed. "What?"

"I know you're upset about something, and you don't have to tell me what, but can I please come in for a minute."

Rory sighed and unlocked the door. "I guess so."

Lorelai walked in and put Rory's biology book down on Rory's desk. "Everything ok?"

Rory wiped residual tears from her eyes. "No."

Lorelai nodded and sat down on her bed. "You want to talk about it?"

Rory shook her head quickly in the negative.

"OK. Ok. I said you didn't have to tell me and you don't. Just tell me one thing."

"What?"

"Are you in any danger or trouble?"

"Of course not." Rory said surprised that Lorelai thought she was in trouble.

Lorelai let out a relieved breath she wasn't even aware she was holding. "Good. Now I know you said you had to study but I think you should come out and eat some dinner with me."

Rory nodded. "Just give me one more hour and we'll go to Luke's."

"Sure." Lorelai said standing up and walking towards the door. She stopped before exiting and turned back around to face Rory. "Hey kiddo?"

"Yeah?" Rory said not even looking up from her books

"If you decide that you want to talk about it..."

"I know... You're here for me... It'll help to talk about it... blah blah blah... now go or I won't get my homework done and I won't go to dinner with you."

Lorelai smiled slightly and walked out the room.

xxxxxx

Luke looked up as he heard the diner door open and smiled as a much happier Lorelai entered with Rory tailing in behind her. His smile faded as soon as he saw the look on Rory's face. He watched Rory sit down at a table while Lorelai walked over to talk to him. "Hey, what's with her? She doesn't look like Rory?" Luke asked concerned

Lorelai nodded. "I'm not sure what's up with her. She's depressed about something." she said accepting the coffee Luke was offering

"So, figure it out." Luke said as if it were obvious

"And how do you suppose I go about doing that?"

"Play the Mom card. She's the kid you're the adult. She has to tell you." Luke said

Lorelai laughed and walked away. Half way back to her table she turned around. "Two burgers, fries and pie..." she said before looking back at Rory and then adding, "lots of pie."

Luke nodded and went back behind the counter. He looked up and saw the diner doors open and groaned inwardly as he saw Dean enter.

Dean walked over to Rory and Lorelai. "Hey I thought you were studying and couldn't take a break!" he said accusingly

Rory sighed before loudly letting her head bang against the table. Concern and confusion flooded Lorelai's eyes. "Hun!"

"I can't take this anymore." Rory snapped

"Excuse me?" Dean snapped back at her

Rory looked at him for a long second. "You are constantly accusing me of things!" Rory yelled gaining everyone's attention

"No I'm not. Rory what are you talking about?" Dean asked confused

"Rory what's going with you and Jess? Rory are you really studying or avoiding me? Rory do you really love me! Get off of it. Sometimes I want a break from your constant possessiveness. Forgive me if for one day I'd rather not hang out and watch you play baseball or basketball or watch you stock shelves! Forgive me if for one day all I want is to be left alone!" she yelled

"Hun..." Lorelai started when Dean looked too stunned to say anything

"NO! Don't... it's not just him! It's you too. I was studying, which is what I need to do to get into Harvard and you won't let me study. You want to pester me about what's wrong and why I'm all mopey and then since you think you've found the key to it you want to pester me about him!"

"Him who?" Dean asked

"Rory honey why don't we go..." Lorelai pleaded not wanting Dean to know anything about Tristin

"No... you wanted me out of my room and away from my books and now you want me to go back. You can't have it both ways!" she yelled at Lorelai who was looking helplessly at Luke

"HIM WHO?" Dean said again this time loudly

"Dean..." Lorelai started

"HIM WHO!" Dean yelled this time

"TRISTAN!" Rory screamed, "Tristan, we're talking about Tristan."

Dean's face fell and then suddenly became flooded with anger. "The accountant? Why are you arguing about him. What's going on!" Dean snapped loudly

Luke finally taking control of his diner decided that the best option was to close the diner. "Ok people show's over. Everyone out!" he said trying to help Lorelai

"Rory..."

"It's none of your business Dean!" Rory snapped

Dean shook his head. "I think you're wrong. You're my girlfriend and I would very much like for you to tell me what's going on! I mean are you cheating on me with him!"

"That's it Dean, jump to the conclusion that means you get to accuse me of something. No I'm not cheating on you. When would I have time to cheat on you? You monopolize all my time." she accused

"The play. You kicked me out of rehearsal. How am I supposed to know what happened when I was forced to leave! How am I supposed to know what happens at Chilton!" he accused

"He left too! You attacked him, I defended you and then he left angry with me because I defended you, even though he had done nothing wrong. You however, were watching me and him like we were about to have sex or something. As for Chilton... nothing happens at Chilton! We don't even talk to each other. I've barely said two words to him since we started dating again." Rory yelled, "We weren't even friends." she added trying desperately not to cry.

"Then what in the hell is the big deal! Why argue with Lorelai about him? Why this mood you've been in all day and last night!"

Rory looked at both Dean who was beyond angry and Lorelai who was more than confused, then looked back at Luke who looked miserable. "I have to get out of here. I'm sorry Luke you can reopen the diner now." she said before stomping out of the diner and then uncharacteristically for a Gilmore running down the street to get away from all of their prying eyes.

AN: I'm sorry it was so long before the update… I know exactly where I want the story to go… just no clue how I'm going to get it there… and I'm also so sorry for the shortness of this chapter… Please read and review…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Dean stared numbly at the door and Rory's retreating body for a long minute before whipping around and facing Lorelai. "What was that about?"

Lorelai sighed. "You have to back off of her right now. She's upset and I don't know why so I can't fix it. You hanging around accusing her of cheating on you with Tristan isn't helping." she practically barked

"But you're sure this mood, this funk she's in is because of this Tristan guy?" Luke said ignoring Dean entirely

Lorelai sighed. "Yes... no... I don't know really. I just see how she reacts when I mention him. He may not be the reason she's like this but something about him is bothering her."

"Tristan... he's the one that made her life hell last year isn't he?" Luke asked confused

"Yeah. He's the rich punk that she hated last year. Or at least she told me that she hated him, guess she was lying about that too." Dean snapped angrily

Lorelai groaned. "That's what you want to hear isn't it? That Rory lied to you? Give you a reason to accuse her of something."

"No I..."

"Shut up Dean. She's not cheating on you. If she was she would have told me. So now you can leave her alone about it until I figure out what the hell is going on. I don't want you within ten feet of my daughter tonight." Lorelai snapped forcefully

"But..."

"I suggest that you shut up and do what you were told Dean. Stay away from Rory." Luke interrupted

xxxxxx

The next day Lorelai wasn't surprised to see Rory walk out of her room with a scowl on her face. "What's on the agenda for the day?"

Rory sighed. "School."

"And..."

"Nothing..."

"You don't think you're forgetting something?" Lorelai asked alluding that she had

"I don't know... am I?" Rory asked with a blank face

Lorelai sighed. "We're supposed to build our snowman today after you get home."

Rory's face fell. "Oh... right... about that..."

"You're not getting out of this Ror. You entered us months ago." Lorelai said aggravated

Rory shook her head furiously. "No you entered us. I said I didn't have the desire to build a snowman and you said that's too damn bad because I already entered us."

"Rory..."

"Fine I'll help you build the snowman now can I please go to school?" Rory snapped before walking out the front door towards her bus stop.

xxxxxx

Rory made it all the way to her locker before she noticed she was being watched by the entire hallway. She turned around when she saw Paris walk up behind her. "Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked nervously. Paris just laughed and walked off leaving Rory even more apprehensive than before. Rory groaned and slammed her locker before walking straight into her Shakespeare class. She looked up at the teacher who was also looking at her funny before sitting at her desk and taking out her notebook. She had hoped that no one would bother her again but her hopes were crushed the second Summer sat down next to her.

"Hey Mary."

"What do you want Summer?"

"I wouldn't mind knowing if you know where Tristan is... he's not in school today either and I'm starting to become worried..."

"No you're not." Rory snapped

"Excuse me?"

"You aren't worried about him. You don't know where he is and it's driving you crazy because you think I do. You think I know where he is and you want the gossip so bad it hurts. Newsflash Summer... I don't know where Tristan is. Don't ask me again."

Summer smiled at the obvious pain in Rory's voice. "Even if you did you wouldn't tell me would you?"

Instead of saying anything back she got up and walked out the class hearing only a faint _Ms. Gilmore_ being called behind her.

xxxxxx

Lorelai walked into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee and then walked over to Sookie. "Hey Sook! How's the menu coming along for tonight?"

"Great and the menu I'm using for the Bracebridge Dinner is almost finished too!"

"That's great! I'm looking forward to it!"

"Me too..." Sookie said distracted by music coming from the lobby... "What's that?"

"_The auditions are starting. You wanna come watch?"_

"_Oo yes."_ Sookie said excitedly

Lorelai and Sookie walked into the lobby and smiled as the music started again. "So what's the menu for the dinner looking like?"

"_We're talking seven courses here. Soup, fish, peacock pie, the Baron of beef, the salad, then the Plum Pudding and the Wassail._"

"Sounds fantastic!" Lorelai said excitedly while listening to the two people playing the recorders.

"_Hey, you cats really know how to blow those things!_" Sookie said smiling

xxxxxx

Lorelai continued watched the musicians audition after Sookie went back into the kitchen. She was about to hire the harp player in front of her when Michel walked in. "Lorelai..."

"One second Michel she's almost done."

"Normally I would wait for the insipid harp lady to finish playing before coming in here, mainly because I hate the harp but there's a phone call for you."

"Who is it?" Lorelai asked distracted

"Your daughter's school. A Mr. Charleston I believe."

"You're hired." Lorelai yelled to the harpist before snatching the phone and walking out of the room. "Yes this is Lorelai Gilmore. Is Rory ok?"

"That seems to be the question on most of my school personnel's mind as well. We were wondering if you had perhaps seem your daughter since this morning." Charleston said with a gloat in his voice

"I sent her to school. Did she not show up?" Lorelai asked worried

"Oh yes she showed up but left shortly after the first class started. Apparently she had an altercation with another student..."

"Was it Paris?"

"No it wasn't Ms. Geller It was Ms. Roberts."

"Ms. Roberts? I'm not sure who that is." Lorelai said confused

"Her first name is Summer." Charleston explained

"Oh right Summer, I've heard about her. What kind of altercation?"

"A verbal altercation. The two were arguing about another one of Chilton's students. Well technically one of Chilton's former students."

"Who?" Lorelai interrupted

"Mr. Dugrey." Hanlin answered, "Anyway your daughter walked out of her Shakespeare class this morning and hasn't been seen since. I just thought that you should be aware of the fact that skipping classes at Chilton is strictly prohibited and that this would normally carry a punishment in the form of suspension but at the recommendation of more than one of her teachers I will let it slide just this once. See that it doesn't happen again Ms. Gilmore." Hanlin said before hanging up the phone

Lorelai stormed back up to the check in desk and handed the phone back to Michel. "I'm going out." she snapped before storming out of the inn.

xxxxxx

Rory sighed as she walked down the road passing Doose's. It had been hours since she had stormed out of Chilton. She had found herself lingering at his locker, the bench outside the Franklin where they had decided to be friends, the front entrance where he had told Dean she hated him. She knew that she had to stop thinking about Tristan. He was nothing to her really. He had never been her boyfriend, he had never really been her friend. She didn't understand why him leaving was bothering her so much. She continued to walk down the road and sighed when she ended up in front of Patty's again. She remembered replaying her and Tristan's argument in her head the day before and couldn't stop it from replaying now. Wiping a tear from her face she walked in only to find Ms. Patty sitting at the piano alone playing. "Hey Ms. Patty."

Patty looked at the clock and then back at Rory. "Shouldn't you be in school sugar?"

"Yes. Can I stay here for a little while?" Rory asked barely able not to cry as the memory of Tristan standing over her bending to kiss her flashed in front of her eyes.

Patty looked closely at Rory and saw tears brimming in her eyes. "Honey what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Rory said shaking her head furiously and wiping the tears from her eyes. "I just need to be somewhere where no one would look for me right now."

Patty nodded. "Here honey sit here." she said scooting over and patting a place next to her on the piano bench

Rory smiled. "Thank you." she said while sitting down only to have a flash of kissing Tristan while sitting at Madeline's piano. She immediately hopped up. "I'm sorry I have... I have to go." she added sobs beginning to take over her body

"Honey... what is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing I just.. I have to go... Thank you..." she said before running out

xxxxxx

Lorelai called Rory's cell phone and got no response for the hundredth time in the last hour. She decided to give up and walked back into the inn only to be hit with the news that the Bracebridge guests had been snowed in. After spending thirty minutes on the phone with the head of the Bracebridge group she walked into the kitchen and frowned at Sookie.

"_Honey what's the matter?"_ Sookie asked concerned

_"They're snowed in."_ Lorelai said frowning

"_Who's snowed in?"_ Sookie asked confused

"_The Bracebridge group. They're stuck in Chicago. The dinner's off."_

_"No."_

_"Yes."_

_"I'm gonna cry."_

_"I offered to fund the instant invention of a molecular transport device but they just didn't go for it."_

_"Oh that makes me so mad. And sad. I'm smad."_

"Me too Sookie I'm smad. Oh and that's not all."

"There's more how can there possibly be more?"

"Rory's cutting school."

Sookie dropped the bowl she had just picked back up on the floor. "What do you mean Rory's cutting school?"

"She got into an argument with a girl today and just walked out."

"Rory got in an argument? Rory doesn't get into arguments."

"Yes she does. A lot lately actually, with everyone."

"Well what was it about?" Sookie asked concerned

"Surprisingly a guy." Lorelai said and then began telling her everything she knew.

xxxxxx

Lorelai looked up shocked to see Rory standing in front of her. "Fancy seeing you here." She said snottily

"You told me I had to help you build the snowman. Is there somewhere else I should be instead?"

"Yeah… how about at Chilton begging Charleston not to suspend you."

Rory's head dropped down shamefully. "Mom…"

"What in the hell were you thinking Rory! I'm not even going to ask because I know you won't tell me why you and Summer were arguing about Tristan…"

"How do you…"

"What you think Charleston is going to call me and not tell me the details…"

"I just.. I couldn't… I don't… I don't want to talk about it."

"Exactly what I expected. Just help me build the damn snowman."

xxxxxx

"_How do you like that mouth?"_ Lorelai asked curiously

"_Um… it's not very mouth-like."_ Rory said grumpily

"_Oh, I think it works."_ Lorelai said defensively

"_It's tilted to the side."_ Rory snapped acidly

"_Yeah, no it was intentional. It gives her a unique expression."_

"_Like she had a stroke?"_

"_Fine, I'll just use the Mr. Potato Head lips."_ Lorelai snapped angrily

"_No, forget it leave stroke-mouth. It's not like we're gonna win this anyway."_ Rory snapped before turning around and walking off.

AN: That's it… that's chapter 4… read and review… and if you think you recognize some of the dialogue it's cause you do… it was taken directly from the episode… next chapter the bracebridge dinner…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Lorelai was about to turn around and follow after Rory when her cell phone rang. Sighing she flipped her phone open without even looking at the caller id. _"Hello. It's Lorelai."_

_"Hey Lor. It's me."_

_"Oh hi Chris. How are you?"_

_"Good, good. You... uh... got a minute?"_

_"Uh oh."_

_"It's not an uh oh I just wanted to run an idea by you."_

_"Run it."_

xxxxxx

Lorelai groaned when she entered her house and her ears were immediately assaulted by loud blaring music. She walked over to Rory's door and wasn't surprised the least bit when she turned the doorknob and nothing happened. "RORY!" she yelled as she pounded on the door over the music. She was surprised when the door opened almost immediately.

"What!"

"First of all lose the attitude. Second of all your father called."

Rory immediately turned the music off. "Dad called?"

"Yeah. He invited you to stay with him for your winter break."

_"He invited me over?"_

"Yeah and I think you should go."

"Huh?" she asked completely confused. She had never spent a holiday away from Lorelai and she couldn't understand why she was so anxious to get rid of her for Christmas

"I said I think you should go." Lorelai repeated

"No I got that part thank you, what I meant was why?"

"Let's face it kid... I obviously can't give you what you want right now. Being around people and acting like a normal person seems to be becoming too much for you. You treat me and Dean like we're dirt, you're skipping school, you're keeping secrets that make you cry yourself to sleep at night and all of this has happened in three days. I think it's a good idea if you go stay with Chris for a few weeks. I can't handle you right now." Lorelai said spitefully

Rory nodded. "I see." at Lorelai's confused look she tilted her head to the side and smirked. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What do they do after you have a baby. Do they pull the parents aside and remind them that it's ok... they don't have to worry at all because they can always just ship their kids off when they become too much to handle. I'm so fed up with people just sending their kids away..."

"That's not what I'm doing..."

"You're right maybe I should go..."

"What?"

_"I can still call you Mom, and I'll call her Mommy Sherry." _at Lorelai's unhappy face she added, "Is that what you want. I mean she'll be my stepmother someday right I might as well get used to calling her Mommy."

_"Don't be mean."_

_"We can even split up holidays evenly. Like I'll be with you on Labor Day..."_

_"OK..."_

_"Her on Memorial Day..."_

_"Enough."_

_"I'll have to find out about her religion though to see how Chanukah will factor into this unless you want to convert to Judaism and then take over Chanukah for yourself..."_

_"I get the point."_ Lorelai snapped, "You don't want to go..."

"Good, now please leave me alone. I like to feel abandoned when I'm alone and in the dark... I don't need and audience." she said before slamming her door in Lorelai's face.

xxxxxx

Lorelai sighed as she listened to Sookie drone on about the dinner. _"I've got thirty pounds of aged beef, trays and trays of trout, mountains of pruned tarts. I diced pumpkins until my hands turned orange. I've got pumpkin hands."_

"I know Sookie."

_"How can you stay so calm about this?_

_"There's nothing we can do about it. At least they already paid. We didn't lose any money."_

_"You know I could still make up the dinner for the three of us."_

"Three?"

"Yeah... you, me and Rory."

"Oh Sookie that's sweet but you soooo don't want to be around Rory right now." Lorelai said sympathetically

_"What about Luke?"_

_"What about him?"_ Luke asked

_"He eats and Jess eats. Doesn't Jess eat?" _Sookie asked excitedly

_"What's she doing?"_ Luke asked Lorelai

_"I think she's inviting you for dinner."_

_"Come on, join us. It'll be fun. You like Peacock Pie?" _Sookie begged

_"I'm a hundred percent sure that I don't."_ Luke insisted

_"Let's invite everyone."_ Lorelai added

_"Everyone who?"_

_"Everyone everyone."_

_"Everyone everyone who?"_

_"Everyone we know, everyone we like."_

_"I love it!"_ Sookie exclaimed

Lorelai turned towards Luke. _"Spread the word."_

_"I haven't said I'd come yet so I'm certainly not going to suddenly become your messenger boy...eight o'clock?"_

_"Seven."_

_"Right."_

Lorelai smiled happily and began telling everyone she knew to come to dinner.

xxxxxx

With the dinner set for Friday the week flew by quickly. She had just got a really disturbing phone call from her mother and was on a warpath when she slammed into the house. "RORY!" she yelled

"Yeah?" Rory asked coming out of the kitchen

"You invited my parents!" she asked angrier than she had remembered being in a long time

"I thought it might help get Grandpa out of the weird funk he's been in lately." she said innocently

"Says the girl who's been walking around here all week wanting to punch anyone in her eyesight."

"That's not true. I haven't wanted to punch Lane, or Jess, or Luke, or..."

"I get it... it's basically me, Dean and that Summer girl..."

"Don't forget Paris."

"I just can't believe that you invited my parents without even saying anything to me about it. Where are they gonna stay? You remember this thing is overnight."

"Room 31."

"Room 31 is booked."

"I know... I booked it for Grandma and Grandpa."

"Why would you do that? This was supposed to be our Friday night away from them!"

"Had you found a way out of dinner without telling them about this dinner!" Rory snapped

"Well... um... not exactly..." Lorelai stuttered

"Ok then. This way they get to have their dinner and we can ignore them if we want."

"This is payback for inviting Dean isn't it?"

Rory shook her head. "Absolutely not. I love Dean. I can't wait to see him." Rory lied

"Then why haven't you returned his phone calls this week?"

"I've been busy and he knows that. I told him that two days ago." Rory said before looking at the clock. "It's almost time to go you should start getting ready. I'll meet you there." she said before walking out the house

xxxxxx

Rory sighed. The last place she wanted to be was at the inn playing hostess to a bunch of people. She plastered a fake smile on her face as Dean and his little sister walked in. She didn't mind Clara but Dean was a completely different story.

_"Hey."_ Dean said smiling widely at him

Rory forced herself to return the smile. _"Hello there."_ Then a real smile graced her lips. _"Hey Clara."_ she said reaching out and touching her dress _"Nice, is that a Stella McCartney?"_

_"It's a Wal-Mart."_

_"Well it's very pretty."_

_"My mom bought it for tonight."_

_"She's got good taste."_ she said half groaning when she heard the door open again. She looked up and smiled when she saw Jess.

Dean looked up too and saw Jess and groaned. _"I didn't know he was coming."_

What part of Mom invited everyone in town didn't he understand she thought to herself. _"Who?"_

_"Jess."_

_"Yeah, is that a problem?"_

_"Not really. It's just that he got into this fight with this guy at school and when I broke it up he started in on me."_

_"He hit you?"_ Rory asked

_"He tried."_ Dean said looking up as Jess waved to Rory. _"He better not do that all night."_

Rory sighed and smiled again as the door opened revealing more guests. "I have to go. I'll talk to you later." she said in Dean's direction and headed towards the new guests not even noticing if he said anything back to her

xxxxxx

_"Hey everybody, will you gather round? Everyone, everyone! First of all, I want to welcome you to the first annual and probably never ever to be held again because Sookie's on the verge of a nervous breakdown Bracebridge Dinner. I also want to thank Mother Nature for snowing in the Trelling Paper Company in Chicago so I can throw this great party for all my friends instead. It's a very special night. And so, since I don't get to eat unbelievably strange food with my friends everyday, I have arranged a little surprise. Outside, as we speak, is a line of horse drawn sleighs and everybody gets a ride. So, uh, line up and keep it orderly. There's two per sleigh and no cutting in front of each other - that goes for everyone. Except me, 'cause I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss a ride in a horse drawn sleigh. Come on." _Lorelai said happily and then began running outside towards the sleighs

xxxxxx

Rory had never been happier then she had been when Clara had insisted that Dean ride with her. She was trying so hard to put Tristan out of her mind and since her and Dean still hadn't discussed her outburst the other day at Luke's she didn't think that being alone with him for more than 2 seconds was the best way to continue avoiding the conversation. Rory got into her sleigh alone and pleasantly happy with that. She had told the sleigh driver that she was alone and she was for a whole two seconds before Jess jumped in the sleigh. _"What are you doing?"_

_"Well I heard it was two to a sleigh, no more no less. You were breaking the rules."_

_"You could have hurt yourself."_

"I'm touched by your concern."

_"You got into a fight with Dean?"_ Rory asked changing the subject

"Is that a question or an assumption?"

"A question."

"No I didn't get in a fight with Dean. I got in a fight with Chuck Presby because he's a jerk. You're boyfriend just jumped in when he should have minded his own business."

Rory nodded. She was inclined to believe him. Dean had a tendency to stick his nose into other people's business. "So... why didn't you go back to New York for winter break?"

"Trying to get rid of me already?" Jess asked pretending to be offended

"No... I just know how much you hate Stars Hollow. I just assumed you'd go home for Christmas."

_"My mom didn't want me to."_ Jess said somewhat bitterly

_"I don't believe that."_

"And you don't have to. The point of the matter is that she sent me away and didn't want me home for Christmas. She abandoned me."

Rory nodded. "You know Mom tried to send me away for Christmas too. Said something about not being able to handle me anymore. Apparently I have an attitude problem."

"You have been kind of crabby lately." Jess said jokingly

"I know. I just I guess I understand why mom pulled me away from Hartford society now."

"Why is that?"

"I've just seen the way some of the family treat their children. The girls are there for mere arm candy. They are supposed to be ambitionless and marry well. The guys are the heirs. They are supposed to be cookie cutter images of perfection and after one screw up they just send them away! Just like that." Rory said beginning to lose her composure and also completely unaware as to why she's telling Jess anything at all. "One mistake... and he's shipped off hundreds of miles away..." she said her voice wavering in disbelief

"Why do I get the sense that we're talking about one particular him?"

Rory shook her head furiously. "We're not... I'm just saying I understand why you feel abandoned by your mother... I'm sure he... I mean they feel abandoned by their families too... and when Mom tried to ship me off to Boston earlier today..."

Jess looked over at Rory who had tears in her eyes. "Ror... what is it?"

"Nothing... I'm just saying I understand..."

Jess nods. "You know you can trust me right? I mean you don't know me very well, but you're about the only thing in this town that I wouldn't want to trade for New York and I'm perfectly willing to listen to whatever it is that's wrong with you."

"There's nothing wrong."

"You have tears in your eyes."

"My eyes are watering. It's my allergies... I'm allergic to horses."

"You are not..."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do or you wouldn't be in a horse drawn sleigh."

"How do you know I don't just like sleighs?"

"Cause you're not Santa..." Jess said

Looking around and deciding that the subject needed to be changed Rory pointed to Lorelai and her snowman. "What do think?"

"About what, the snowman?"

"Yeah."

_"Kind of looks like Bjork."_

"That's what she was going for, but I doubt she'll win. Not with that guy over there's snowman." she said pointing to the perfect snowman that had obviously taken days to make

_"It's so overdone."_

AN: Ok so another chapter… I hadn't expected it to be this long but oh well… I'll finish out the dinner in the next chapter… read and review please…


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

After the dinner had wound down and the guests were beginning to tuck themselves into their beds Lorelai found Rory sitting outside at the stables. She was surprised to see her sitting with Jess though. She noticed that Rory was actually smiling which pleased her but only added to the confusion she had over what was wrong with her daughter. She cleared her throat and watched as the two teens jumped both startled by her intrusion.

"Mom." Rory said loudly

"Luke is looking for you Jess." Lorelai told him looking at him strangely

Jess nodded. "Thanks. I'll talk to you later Rory?"

"Yeah. We'll talk later." Rory said watching Jess walk back towards the inn. Once again Rory's mood changed from the happy smiling girl she was earlier to the cold stoic person she had been. "Did you need something?"

Lorelai sighed. "I was wondering if you were planning on coming to bed anytime soon?"

"Yeah. I'll be up in a minute." Rory said distracted by Dean's shadow quickly approaching them

Lorelai looked up and saw Dean and then back at Rory. "Look kiddo… whatever the thing with Tristan is, it's over. He's not a student at Chilton anymore, you won't see him again. You should forget about whatever it is and focus on what you have with Dean. I'd hate to see you throw something like that away on a whim." She said sincerely before walking off.

No more than ten seconds after Lorelai was out of Rory's line of sight Dean was standing next to her. "Hey…" he said nervously

"Listen about the other day…"

"I've actually been wanting to talk about that with you…"

"It was stupid. I don't know what was going on in my mom's head. I've never been involved with Tristan, so I don't see why she assumes that's what's wrong. I haven't said a word about Tristan since the play."

"Why would Tristan even enter her mind Rory?" Dean asked accusingly

"I don't know it's my mom. She's insane."

"Rory…"

"I need for you to trust me Dean. I love you. I have never cheated on you. I will never cheat on you. I want to be with you." Rory lied trying to convince herself almost as much as she was trying to convince Dean.

Dean looked at Rory and she could tell that he honestly wanted to believe her. "Ok. I believe you." he said softly

xxxxxx

A week and half later everything had seemed to have gone back to normal. Rory and Lorelai hadn't fought in a week and Rory and Dean seemed to be back on track as well. Lorelai wasn't sure how much of it was just an act but she decided that she didn't mind, atleast her daughter wasn't a walking attitude problem anymore. She sighed as she got out of bed and walked downstairs to make coffee. She smiled as she Rory already doing it. "Hey... whatcha doing kiddo?"

"Making coffee." Rory answered

"Really how strong it is?" Lorelai asked curiously

"Monday morning strong..." Rory replied

"And being that it's Wednesday I'm assuming it's safe to say you had a long night last night. Big paper?"

Rory sighed and she knew that even Lorelai had noticed the change in her mood and tone of her voice when she softly replied. "Not really just a write up of the Romeo and Juliet perfomances. You know the choice making processes, things like how we decided who would play who and what kind of theme we'd go with. It's mostly just a paper ranting and raving about Paris and her psychotic ways." Rory rambled out

Lorelai noticed Rory's face change when she mentioned the play and decided it was time to change the subject. "You almost ready to go to school?"

Rory nodded. "Yea."

"Well gimme ten minutes and then we'll hit Luke's and then I'll drive you to school."

"Ok." Rory said walking back into her room. Ten minutes later she walked back out and saw Lorelai trying to tie her shoes. "Having problems there mom?" she asked laughingly

Lorelai shot Rory a look. "Haha funny. Just go get in the jeep and I'll meet you out there."

Rory laughed and walked out the front door. She had taken two steps onto the porch when she felt the wood give out beneath her foot. "MOM!" she screamed loudly

Lorelai frantically ran to the door and stopped suddenly seeing Rory still standing on the porch. "What? What is it? Is there a spider or something?"

Rory didn't say a word just pointed down at her foot that was stuck inside the porch. Lorelai looked down and started laughing. "Stop laughing and get my foot out of the porch! If Chilton didn't buy the whole 'a deer hit my car' thing they aren't going to believe that my foot went through out porch and that's why I'm late."

Lorelai helped Rory dig her foot out and then they both walked to the jeep. "I'll call someone after I drop you off."

xxxxxx

Rory and Lorelai walked into LUke's and sat down at their usual table. Luke came over and grumbled when Lorelai ordered coffee. Rory sighed and pulled an envelope out of her book bag. "So I almost forgot. These came in yesterday." she said handing it to Lorelai.

Lorelai giglgled slightly. "I love mail." she said then she looked closer at the evelope. "Rory these are your PSAT scores. " she said excitedly

"Yeah I know." she said taking the envelope back when Lorelai handed it to her

Lorelai smiled at Luke as he came back over to refill her cup. _"Just leave the pot Ethel."_

Luke sighed. "_I'm just an enabler_."

Lorelai laughed. "_Well hurry up, open it."_

Rory groaned but tore into the envelope anyway.

Unable to read Rory's expression Lorelai quickly through in. "_Ok just remember that these the PSAT's, okay so it's like the Baby Gap, they don't count as much. Plus you can take them over again. Plus you are very young and have years of learning ahead of you and the really important thing is that you tried very hard."_

_"I got a 740 verbal and a 760 math."_

_"Ugh, thank god you're not an idiot."_

Rory nodded. "Yeah."

_"Those are damn good scores little lady, really amazing, top notch. Those are PSAT-riffic. Sorry, it was just lying there I had to go for it. You're frowning..."_

"My foot went through the porch mom. I'm not exactly in the best of moods right now."

"Right, so do you think the porch is falling apart or that you just weigh a ton?" Lorelai asked Rory smiling widely

"I think that the porch is falling apart." Rory said simply

_"The porch is fine. It just has a little extra ventilation in it now, that's all."_

_"The wood is old and rotting."_

_"The wood is not old and rotting. It's young and sprightly and will be with us for a long long time to come."_

"So you think I weigh a ton?"

xxxxxx

The classroom was completely silent and Mrs. Caldecott read over the papers that she had taken from her students while they read over their next assignment. she flipped to Rory's and skimmed it. She frowned when she noticed that Rory had left out a kep component and looked up at the girl. She ahd noticed an obvious change in her attitude during the last two weeks. She wasn't the only one either. All of her teachers had been talking about her lately, one of them even asking Max Medina if he thought he should talk to her. Max politely declined knowing that it was inapropriate but also asked to be informed of her behavior changes. She could see that he cared deeply for Rory but with the history with her mother knew he couldn't say anything unless Rory reached out to him. She sighed. "Rory can I ask you come questions about your paper?" she asked gaining everyone's attention

Rory looked up startled by the attention. "Um... yes ma'am."

"It all seems in order but I noticed that you didn't mention Mr. Dugrey once. He was a member of your group was he not?"

Rory blushed slightly and her frown deepened at the mention of Tristan. "Yes ma'am. He was a member of my group."

"Then why was he not mentioned?"

"He didn't participate very much. There was very little to write in regards to him."

"Ms. Geller, Ms. Lynn and Ms. Grant all found things to write. And I believe he was supposed to be cast as Romeo was he not?"

"Yes, he was..."

"And you were Juliet therefore the two of you had to have worked together at some point so why is he not mentioned."

"I told you he didn't participate. He was late for every rehersal, he left before we ever got anything done, he wasn't involved in the decision making process at all. I had nothing of any importance to write regarding him." Rory said aggitated that her teacher was calling her out in the middle of class with everyone staring at her.

Mrs. Caldecott sighed. She was about to tell her that it was fine when she was interrupted by Summer's voice. "You could have explained that in your paper. You could have written something regarding why he wasn't Romeo in the actual performance."

"You just want to know where he went. Why he isn't in school anymore." Rory snapped agrily

"I'm just trying to give you suggestions Rory..."

"No you're trying to weasel your way into finding out what I know about Tristan. Get over it Summer. If he wants you to know where he is I'm sure he'll call you. And hounding me for information will get you nowhere anyway. I don't know where he went. I don't know why he's gone all I know is that he's gone." Rory yelled

"I don't believe you." Summer snapped back

"That's irrelevent isn't it though." Rory snapped before looking back up at Mrs. Caldecott. "Can I have the bathroom pass please?"

Mrs. Caldecott nodded numbly not knowing what to say. She hadn't meant for that to happen but as Rory accepted the pass she couldn't help but notice the tears that were flowing down Rory's face, and she began to understand just what had changed Rory's mood so suddenly in the last couple of weeks.

xxxxxx

Rory quickly made her way into the nearest girls bathroom and sunk to the floor. Moments later she was sobbing. Her sobbing could be heard all the way down the hall. Paris who had followed her out sighed, part of her knowing that she should just go in there and make sure Rory was ok but the other part said that Rory was lying to everyone. That she knew what had happened to one of her oldest childhood friends and wouldn't tell her. That Rory wouldn't tell her anything. So she turned around and headed back into class. She walked over to Summer before she sat down and whispered. "Stay the hell away from Rory."

Before Summer could say anything to Mrs. Caldecott Paris was already sitting down in her seat and had resumed working on their assignment.

xxxxxx

_"You have termites._" Kirk said definitively

_"What?"_ Lorelai asked clearly upset

_"Tens of thousands of them. Subterranean, dry wood, the whole gamut."_

_"Gross._" Rory added

_"Four of them crawled up my nose."_

_"Okay Kirk._" Lorelai said agravated

_"It happens all the time where you're upside down. To them the nostril looks just like another hollow passage in the wood. They're not too bright."_

_"Ok so we have termites. So what do we... uh.. um... don't you want to come inside Kirk?"_

_"Actually I would prefer to discuss this outside."_

Lorelai saighed but followed Kirk out the door. _"Kirk?"_

_"Let's get down to it. From what I've witnessed, your house is a bug infested smorgasbord."_

_"But what do we do?"_

_"Well.. uh... if you don't mind I'd prefer to discuss this on the lawn."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because this porch could give out on us at any minute."_

_"Kirk stop the porch is fine."_

"My foot went through it this morning!" Rory added

_"That was different, that wood was old."_

_"What happened to sprightly?"_

_"Kirk what are you doing?"_ Lorelai snapped irritated with Kirk

_"Just making sure that if the roof come down, the debris can't ricochet over here and take me out."_

_"Honey in five minutes it won't need to."_

xxxxxx

Rory groaned as she went back into the house. She had no interest in listening to Lorelai and Kirk argue over the price of fixing the house. She flopped onto her bed and pulled out Mrs. Caldecott's assignment so that she could read over it. But the attempt was futile. Her mind kept flitting back to Tristan. She'd been trying really hard this last week to put him out of her mind and while it was becoming esaier to do at home it was impossible to do at school. The whole place was full of memories of him. Places where she had been made uncomfortable when he looked at her. Places where she'd watch him press random numerous girls against the walls and kiss them. She sighed as her vision once again began to cloud as tears filled her eyes. Cursing she furiously wiped the tears off her face. It was all Mrs. Caldecott's fault. She was the one who had brought up Tristan. She was the one that had caused her to break down in the bathroom. She wasn't an idiot she knew her teachers knew something was going on and that they were all concerned for her. She had seen Max wathching her after lunch today knowing that he wanted to say something to her.

Lorelai walked back into the house and headed towards Rory's room. Once she opened the door she saw that Rory was crying. "Honey it's ok. It's just termites I'll fix it don't worry."

Rory looked up at Lorelai as if she were insane for a minute before nodded slowly. "I just really like our house. I don't want a bunch of bugs eating it." she lied swiftly

The second Rory's eyes connected with Lorelai's Lorelai knew the termites had nothign to do with Rory's tears. Sighing but ignoring it and letting Rory think she believed her she nodded. "I know hun. And I'm not going to let it happen. You wouldn't happen to have fifteen thousand dollars would you?" she then added jokingly

xxxxxx

_"Rory wake up."_

Rory rolled over groaning. She looked over at her clock and saw 11:00. _"What's going on?"_

_"I can hear them chewing."_ Lorelai said crypticly

_"Who?"_

_"The termites. I hear them. They're everywhere, nibbling and eating and swallowing."_

_"You're insane."_ Rory said pulling her pillow back over her head

Lorelai ripped the pillow off her head instantly. _"I can't sleep here."_

_"What!"_

_"No, we have to go to Sookie's."_

_"You're kidding right?"_

_"Unh uh."_

_"It's eleven o clock at night."_

_"Yeah well here, but somewhere in the world it's still miller time."_

_"Mom you're wigging. Go put on some imaginary ear plugs to drown out the imaginary termite sounds and go back to sleep."_ Rory snapped angrily

_"But..."_

_"Bed!"_

_"But..."_

_"Now!"_

_"But ugh.. you really don't hear them?"_

_"No and as soon as you're asleep you won't either._" Rory snapped effectively ending the conversation.

AN: Chapter done.. and once again I used some dialogue form the episode... this time it was Secrets and Loans enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I;m having a difficult time doing what I want to do by following the episode guides so I'm still going to include things that happened on the show but I'm going to put them in whatever order makes my story seem better. And I'm still going to include dialogue mainly because I want to and partly because sometimes you can't write the line you want so it's easier to pocket one from ASP (all the while giving her credit of course) so if there's a line that you recognize it's probably hers...

Chapter Seven

Rory sighed as she listened to Lorelai thump around grumpily upstairs. She knew that Lorelai hadn't slept well after going back upstairs the night before because neither had she. Only the imaginary sound of termites wasn't what was keeping her up. She couldn't seem to turn her brain off. One minute she was thinking about Dean and how she was happy he had finally gotten off her back about her attitude and the next she was thinking about how it just seemed like he gave up only so they wouldn't argue and he wouldn't lose her. She wasn't sure why him sacrificing his mood was bothering her but it was. She kept rationalizing it in her head saying that it was a good thing but her heart kept telling her that if she was meant to be with Dean her mood would reflect that and he wouldn't have to continue ignoring the obvious hostility in her voice when she spoke to him. Finally after much deliberation she decided that she didn't care that her mom was in the kitchen now and decided to get out of bed. Opening the door she was immediately met with a steaming hot cup of coffee.

"Get dressed, we're going to Luke's." Lorelai stated heading back upstairs to do the same

Rory groaned but never the less went back inside her room and dressed herself. When she was finished she met Lorelai by the front door and then two of them left for Luke's.

They were almost half way to Luke's when Lorelai finally spoke. "_I feel like they're crawling all over me with their creepy little fangy teeth and their tail things and their pointy tentacles!" _she exclaimed loudly

"You're over exaggerating! They are not crawling all over you. They eat wood not people. And unless you became Pinnochio over night they aren't crawling all over you. But if it will reassure you that much I'll make a call to Gepetto and the little cricket dude and see if we can turn you into a real girl." Rory said sarcastically before adding, "_Do you even know what a termite looks like?"_

"_Hey unless their wearing a foundation repair guy tee shirt I don't really care._" Lorelai snapped back

"I wish you'd quit acting like I put the termites there just to make you mad and cost us a fortune. It's not my fault." Rory said grumpily

Lorelai looked at her confused for a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "What is your problem this morning?"

"My problem is that you woke me up last night and then I couldn't get back to sleep so I barely slept at all last night and when I did start to fall asleep I was awoken by you screaming 'GET OFF ME YOU DISGUSTING TERMITES' despite the fact that there actually was never a termite on you."

Lorelai sighed. "I'm sorry that I kept you up last night ok. I'm just freaked out by the fact that there are millions of bugs living in and eating our house."

Rory looked over at Lorelai and then over in the Kim house's direction. "Whatever I need to go to Lane's I'll see you later."

xxxxx

Lorelai walked the rest of the way into Luke's and sat down at the counter. Luke looked in her direction before placing a coffee cup in front of her. Lorelai picked it up and took a huge sip only to spit it back directly in the cup. "Luke what in the hell!"

"It's tea. You drink too much coffee." Luke said simply

"Luke I know we have this conversation daily but you've never done something so cruel as to actually serve me tea pretending it was coffee. It's just...it's the most... it's just mean!"

Luke groaned before putting another cup in front of her. "Fine, drink the coffee but if you die I'm not coming to the funeral."

"Since I'll be dead I don't think I'll mind." Lorelai said before cautiously taking a small sip just to make sure. "Coffee man I think I love you!"

"Yeah, yeah... where's Rory?"

"Lane's."

xxxxxx

Rory walked into the Kim's door and called out. "Hello!"

Mrs. Kim quickly appeared with a broom. "You out!"

Rory quickly moved back a few steps as Mrs. Kim fiercely swept the floor where Rory had been standing only a few seconds only. "What? Why? What did I do?"

"Termites. You have them. This store is full of wood."

"I'm not a termite though. I promise not to turn into one or a beaver or any other wood eating creature and eat your merchandise." Rory said attempting a joke but sounding more sarcastic then anything.

"Rude insolent child."

"I was just kidding. You know making a joke."

"_Boys don't like funny girls."_

"Is Lane here?" Rory asked from the sidewalk

"She's at school."

Rory looked down at her watch. It was barely seven in the morning. "Already?"

"Yes already. She's studying. Now go." Mrs. Kim stated while picking up the water hose and spraying the ground where Rory had just been causing Rory to run out of the yard.

xxxxx

Rory got to Chilton and was immediately ambushed by Paris. "You know where he is don't you?" she practically yelled in Rory's face.

"Who?"

"Don't play innocent with me Gilmore, it doesn't work. I don't fall for the doe eyed expression you like to wear. I'm not him." Paris said noting the change in Rory's face immediately

"Paris." Rory said her exasperation obvious

"I just want to know that he's ok." Paris said her voice practically pleading

"Again this is a question I might could help you with if I knew who we were talking about." Rory stated cooly lying through her teeth

"Rory."

Rory sighed before looking Paris straight in the eyes. Paris could see what she assumed we tears forming in Rory's eyes and for a minute she felt bad for asking, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. In a soft, barely audible voice she heard Rory say, "I'm sure that he is physically fine." before walking off towards her locker.

xxxxxx

Rory avoided Paris like the plague for the rest of the day and was surprised that Summer had also left her alone._ Maybe she's over him now and moved on to a new idiot_ Rory thought to herself as she got back on her bus and headed straight back to Stars Hollow. Once there she went and sat outside the school to wait for Lane. After about ten minutes of just sitting there she saw a basketball fly past her face and heard Dean's voice saying "Think fast.". Not even looking in his direction she watched the basketball fly past her line of reach and be ran over by an oncoming car. Smiling inwardly to herself when she did look up and saw Dean's saddened face over the now flattened basketball.

"You know when people say think fast they generally mean look up and catch the ball." Dean said somewhat agitated

Rory scoffed. "You didn't honestly throw a basketball at my face and expect me to catch it did you?"

"Well..." Dean stated to say but was cut off by Rory

"I have no hand eye coordination and I hate basketball."

"But you could have at least tried..."

"You aren't seriously mad at me because I didn't catch the ball you threw at my face are you?"

"I didn't throw the ball at you Rory, I through it past your face."

"Yes well once the ugly orange ball got past my face it continued to travel past me and met its friends from the rubber factory otherwise known as Gypsy's tires. So therefore you can't be mad at me because you threw your ball in the road." she said aggravated

Dean sighed. "And it seems like you're in yet another stellar mood. Tell me what happens at Chilton that sends you back everyday pissed off?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'm not in a bad mood, I'm tired. Mom thinks the termites are crawling all over her in the middle of the night so she wouldn't let me sleep."

Dean nodded. "Oh ok. So... you wanna go get a coffee?"

Rory paused and then shook her head. "No, I'm waiting on Lane. I haven't talked to her in a couple of days so we need to have some girl time and catch up."

"Come on Rory it's my only day off this week, spend some time with me." Dean said pleadingly

"I'm sorry but I already made these plans with Lane. I forgot you were off today. I really am sorry."

Dean took a deep breath and then released it. "Ok fine. I'll talk to you where you're done with Lane. Call me ok?" he asked

"Of course. The second I'm finished with Lane." she said unsure if she really meant it

"Great." he said before leaning down and leaving a feather light kiss on her cheek before walking away in the direction of the basketball court.

AN: Ok so it was just a filler chapter.. I have the next like ten chapters mapped out and outlined I just can't remember what I did with the outline... read and review please...


	8. Not A Chapter Authors Note READ ME

Authors Note:

First and foremost I'm sorry that everyone thought this was a chapter. On basic principle I hate doing this and try to avoid it... however like I stated before I had a lot of the story already planned out and then lost the outline. Now I have located the outline and it might take some time to readjust to using it. I know that everyone is anxious for Tristan to show up and he will but be patient cause it might be a while... I know the exact moment I'm bringing him back and I refuse to do it any earlier... So sorry... Anyway expect a new chapter sometime in the near future...


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Rory looked up as Lane walked by. "Lane." she yelled gaining Lane's attention.

"Rory. Hey, did we have plans?" Lane asked surprised to see Rory on Dean's day off.

"Can't a friend just want to see a friend?"

"But it's Dean's day off..."

"And what's your point?" Rory asked defensively

Lane shook her head quickly. "No point. What's up?"

Rory sighed. " Nothing... and everything."

"Well let's go to the house and talk then." Lane said heading towards her house

"We can't go to your house."

"Why? I mean I know Mama Kim has ears like a hawk but..."

"No, we have termites. Your mother seems to think that I'm a carrier."

"That's ridiculous."

"Tell that to your mom. She practically beat me with a broom halfway down the street this morning."

"OK then what about your house?"

Rory shook her head again. "No, mom's freaking about the termites too. Said something about only being in the house when absolutely necessary. She thinks the termites are going to get her or something. Besides I don't want to run the risk that she might be there and might hear us."

"So you tell Lorelai everything."

"I know.. I'm just... I'm not ready to tell her this." Rory said shakily

Lane nodded noticing that Rory was beginning to worry her. "Ok then where?"

Rory thought for a moment while they both walked unconsciously towards Luke's. "I'm not sure."

"What about Luke's?"

"The town has ears Lane."

"Not upstairs. And all you have to do is make those doe eyes and Luke and Jess and we have a haven for gossip."

Rory and Lane both smiled evilly and walked into Luke's. Rory saw Luke at the counter and immediately made her way towards him. "Hey Luke."

"Hey Ror." Luke said happily

"Can I ask you a favor Luke?"

Luke looked at her curiously. "What is it?"

"Me and Lane need to have some girl talk. We can't go to her house cause Mrs. Kim thinks I'm a termite carrier..."

"That's ridiculous. People do not carry termites..." Luke interrupted

"You know that and I know that but Mrs. Kim apparently either doesn't know it or doesn't believe it, either way we can't go there. And Kirk has Mom thinking the house is going to fall down the second we walk through the door so she's freaking out and we can't go there either. We obviously can't talk anywhere public since the town has ears..." Rory trailed off now making the infamous Rory doe eyes, "So we were hoping that you would let us go upstairs and talk for a little while."

Luke sighed. "Well... um... I don't think..." he said and then made the mistake of looking at Rory and saw the eyes. "Sure go on up."

Rory smiled widely. "Is Jess up there?"

"Nah. He went out."

"Thanks Luke." Rory said skipping up the stairs

"Yeah thanks Luke." Lane said following her up there.

"Your welcome." He called after them loudly

xxxxxx

Lane walked into the room and looked around in awe. "I've never been up here before. There sure isn't a lot of room up here. How do you think both him and Jess get around up here without killing each other?"

Rory shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think that Luke just kind of tries to stay out of Jess' way. Jess is a bit of a slob and Luke probably goes insane if he spends too much time up here."

" So which bed is Jess'?" Lane asked curiously

"What makes you think I know?" Rory asked defensively

"Down tiger. I just figure you've been up here before at some point in time considering how well you and Jess get along."

Rory sighed and plopped down on a bed. "This one is Jess'. Luke doesn't like to sleep near the window, plus Jess likes to be right next to the radio so he can change it when a crappy song comes on."

Lane nodded. "I can appreciate that. So let's sit down and talk."

"OK." Rory said not making an attempt to move from Jess' bed

Lane walked over to her and sat down on his bed as well. "You think he'll mind that we're on his bed?"

"No probably not. He's not incredibly anal or anything."

"So..."

Rory took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Have you ever hurt anyone, and I mean really hurt them."

"Physically?" Lane asked confused

"No, emotionally." Rory said clarifying

"No, but then again I doubt you have either Ror. There isn't a mean bone in your body." Lane said soothingly

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes." Lane said definitively

"Well I have. I really hurt someone and I feel terrible." Rory said softly

"Who?"

"You remember Tristan?"

"I remember you talking about how annoying he was and I remember that you pointed him out at that party we went to last year."

"Right well, I really hurt him."

"You have a tendency to over think things. Slow down and start from the beginning." Lane said trying to help

Rory took another deep breath. "He bought me PJ Harvey tickets."

"When?" Lane asked surprised that she didn't already now about this

"Right before school ended."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"How often do I talk about anything regarding Tristan? How much info on Tristan have I ever really given anyone?"

"Now that you mention it. Not a lot. You pretty much keep most of Chilton a secret." Lane said as if realizing it for the first time

"Plus I didn't go so it was really irrelevant. Anyway, he spent the entire week trying to convince me to go with him and I kept turning him down. Finally on the day of the concert he was agitated with me and decided to force me into going with him. He stole my books and refused to give them back until I agreed to go with him."

"Wow."

"Yeah, so while I'm standing there arguing with Tristan Dean shows up."

"Oh no."

"Yeah, so I'm arguing with Dean and I know that Tristan is still standing there because I can feel his eyes burning into me."

"You could feel him staring at you?" Lane asked incredulously

"I can always feel it when Tristan is staring at me." Rory said nonchalantly, "Anyway I'm arguing with Dean and Tristan is just standing there behind us in perfect earshot still holding my books when I screamed to Dean that I hated Tristan and that I loved him."

"Oh."

Rory nodded and forced herself to hold back tears when she remembered just how much she must have hurt him. "I heard my books plummet and thud against the cement. I could practically hear his face sadden and I heard him storm off."

"You probably just shocked him. I mean from what you told me he was a player."

Rory shook her head. "I knew how Tristan felt about me. I stopped believing I was nothing but a conquest to him the night me kissed."

"WHAT!" Lane yelled hopping to her feet

"At Madeline's party. Me and Tristan shared a romantic kiss on a piano bench. I told you this! How do you not remember?"

"I don't know. Maybe I was so wrapped up in Henry that I didn't even notice. The only non Henry related thing I remember from that night was you crying and saying you needed to wallow."

Rory stood up and began to pace back and forth. "I knew he liked me. I knew that he cared. I knew that what I said hurt him and I did nothing to stop it. I saw the words form in my head before they left my mouth. I saw his reaction in my head before they left my mouth and I still said them. I knew what saying I hated him would do to him and I didn't... I didn't even try..." Rory said tears welling in her eyes threatening to pour over her cheeks any second now

"Ror... I'm sure..." Lane said not liking the Rory she saw

"I think I made a mistake." Rory said interrupting whatever Lane was about to say

"What are you talking about?"

"Dean. I made a mistake with Dean. I shouldn't be with him. I don't love him." Rory said as if finally realizing it

xxxxxx

Jess entered the diner and saw that Luke kept looking up in the direction of there apartment. "You ok there uncle Luke."

"I'm fine and stop calling me that. I told you it's just Luke." Luke snapped glaring

A loud 'WHAT' was heard coming from the apartment and Jess looked over at Luke and his head rocketed up towards the noise. "What in the hell was that?"

"Rory and Lane are up there. They needed to talk about something."

"And you volunteered out apartment?" Jess asked slightly shocked

"She made the eyes." Luke said walking out into the back room

"Oh well if she made the eyes than that makes perfect sense." he said to no one before heading up the stairs. He was about to open the door when he heard, _"Dean. I made a mistake with Dean. I shouldn't be with him. I don't love him."_ slip from Rory's mouth. Deciding to see what Rory said after that he plopped on the floor and sat down. He knew he shouldn't be eavesdropping but she had been so miserable lately and if there was a way to help her then he was going to take it.

xxxxxx

"Whoa! Wait a minute, you don't love Dean?" Lane asked surprised that Rory had just said that

"I don't think so. I mean I know that I care about him, but love, Lane I don't think so."

"But you told him that you loved him Rory."

"I told him what he wanted to hear."

"Why would you do that?"

Rory took a deep breath. "When I was Dean everything was perfect, but when we broke up... everyone walked on eggshells around me. I was so irritable and Dean was walking around town sulking. People were scared to talk to me because they were scared to mention Dean and even if they barely knew Dean they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from bringing him up. Mom and me fought constantly. The only logical thing I saw was that if I was with Dean everything would go back to normal. I knew Dean wouldn't take me back until I was ready to say I love you. So I did. I said it, and I think that even as the words were coming out of my mouth I knew I was lying." Rory said obviously about to cry

"So you've just been faking it for the last couple of months?" Lane asked stunned

"I think I convinced myself that I was in love with him. I convinced myself that this was what I wanted. I was wrong."

"And what brought on this sudden epiphany? Was it Tristan?" Lane asked curiously

xxxxxx

"_And what brought on this sudden epiphany? Was it Tristan?"_ Jess heard Lane say. He racked his brain trying to think of who Tristan was. He had never heard of anyone named Tristan. He made a mental note to ask Rory about it some other time.

xxxxxx

"I don't know, maybe I'm not sure. Dean has been acting insane lately. He's so jealous. He watches me like a hawk whenever there is another guy in the room. I swear I heard him threaten Kirk the other day when he had the audacity to offer me a flower."

"Why did Kirk offer you a flower?"

"He got a new job at the flower market. He said he was promoting their new flowers." Rory said rolling her eyes. "But I really don't love this side of Dean and it made me realize that I don't think that I love the other side of Dean either."

"Well what are you going to do?"

"Nothing. Besides you don't have to love someone to be in a relationship with them. I'll just pretend that I don't know that I don't love him. I was doing that just fine before...I'm not ready to hurt him. And I know that this will. I can't hurt anyone else right now. I just realized how much I hurt Tristan I can't hurt Dean too."

Lane shook her head. "That's not a solution Ror. You can't stay with him just because you don't want to hurt him. It isn't fair to either of you."

"I know, but I'm just not ready to end things..."

"Well what about the Picnic Basket Auction. You won't be able to avoid him this weekend Ror. I know that you blew him off today but Saturday you won't be able to. You're going to have to at least have lunch with him."

Rory groaned. "I forgot about that. Maybe I just won't auction a basket this year."

"Do you honestly think that Lorelai is going to let you get away with that?"

Rory sighed. "No."

"Then what are you..."

"I'll just have to figure something out, or just grin and bare it."

AN: For anyone who thinks that Rory is out of character, I want you all to think back to the last time her and Dean tried to make a go of it. You can't tellme for one second that she really wanted to be with him then, she just knew that she didn't want to hurt him... so read and review and if you don't like my Rory then oh well...


	10. Chapter 9

Authors Note: Someone asked me why I was using Summer as the evil Chilton girl since she broke up with Tristan, and I'm asking anyone who cares, can you remember another one of Tristan's "girlfriends" other than Cissy? Plus Summer was a complete bitch to Tristan in "The Breakup Part 2" I think it only makes sense that she's just a bitch in general. Plus I figure maybe Summer didn't like the fact that he obviously didn't care about her to begin with but obviously cared about Rory...

Chapter Nine

"Rory come on we have to go to Doose's and pick out baskets!" Lorelai exclaimed loudly and excitedly from the living room after Rory had gotten home from school Thursday afternoon.

Rory groaned loudly. "I'll be there in a minute ok. I really want to change my clothes."

"Oh well hurry up and I'll meet you there!" Lorelai yelled before running out and in the direction of Doose's.

Rory sighed and flopped down on her bed. She wondered how obvious it was that she didn't feel like doing this. The girls at school had backed off some, Summer leaving her alone for the last couple of days, and she couldn't have been happier. She regretted letting Paris know she knew anything at all and she especially regretted letting Paris see her affected by it at all. She wiped her eyes furiously as thoughts of Tristan flitted through. She was so tired of crying. She didn't even know why she was crying. She knew that talking to Lane should have helped but if anything it made it worse. She couldn't help but wonder if Lane was right and that her sudden epiphany of her feelings towards Dean hadn't been caused by Tristan. She knew that Lane didn't know everything because she made sure she left out almost everything to begin with and she couldn't stop herself from thinking that maybe she should have told Lane everything. But at the same time she pushed that thought out of her brain, knowing that telling Lane everything would force her to admit things she knew she wasn't ready for. Sighing she got up and headed out the door towards Doose's. When the store came into sight she couldn't help but think that the Welcome sign on the door should say _Welcome to Hell._

xxxxxx

"Not that one." Dean's voice came from behind her

"You get no say in the basket." Rory said hoping that she sounded upbeat

"I have to bid on it." Dean said patronizingly

"And you have to eat what's inside it and you get no say in that either." Rory said

"Hey?" he said making her turn around and look at him

"Yeah?"

"Is Taylor behind me?" Dean asked cryptically

"No." Rory said unsure why he was asking until he leaned forward and kissed her. Rory had hoped that it would be a short kiss but Dean clearly wanted it to be more than that. Hearing footsteps approaching behind them she thanked God for whoever was there.

Rory pulled away confusing Dean until she pointed behind him. "What? Taylor?" he said before turning around and coming face to face with Jess. "Jess."

"Sorry to intrude." Jess said clearly lying

"Then why did you?" Dean snapped

"Well you're having your vertical From Here to Eternity moment right in front of the super glue."

"Oh." Rory said smiling at him slightly

"Not that it's not an appropriate place to be doing it in front of..."

"Here's your glue." Dean snapped throwing the glue at him

"Thanks. As you were." Jess said winking at Rory

After he watched Jess walk away he turned back around to face Rory. "I really hate that guy."

"He didn't do anything." Rory said annoyed that Dean was acting jealous again

"He's here, he's breathing, that's enough." Dean said furiously restocking the shelves behind him

"I really wish you two could start over."

"Why?"

"Because he lives here and we run into him. He goes to school here. I just think it'd be easier. Plus he's my friend and I hate to think that I have to avoid him like the plague just because the two of you don't get along."

"I'm fine with the whole hating him thing, thank you." Dean said curtly not appreciating her defending Jess

"I just think it's a waste of energy."

"You know I'll have a power bar." he said sarcastically

"Fine forget it."

"So uh, I should probably get back to work. Are we still on for tonight?"

"Tonight?" Rory asked anxiously

"Yeah, I mean it was nothing definite. We talked about seeing a movie or something after work."

"Oh, it's just Paris." Rory said suddenly happy that she had told Dean that Paris was a study freak too.

"What about Paris?"

"She's been trying to be nice to me lately and I kind of made plans to study with her." she said lying

"But.."

"And like you said the plans weren't definite or anything."

"Fine. Have fun." Dean said obviously angry. He leaned down to kiss her only to interrupted again by Jess.

"God!" he snapped

"Sorry, two for one sale." Jess said smiling and grabbing another tube of glue. He laughed when Dean walked off and followed Rory to the cash register. "You ok?"

"I just lied to Dean." she said softly so no one would hear her

"About what?" Jess asked curiously before putting both tubes of glue down on the shelf next to her.

"Aren't you going to get those?"

"No." Jess said looking at her like she was insane. "What do I need super glue for?"

"I don't know." Rory said before handing her basket to Lorelai. "That's the one."

"It's tiny." Lorelai said grumpily

"Point?"

"None." she said then noticing Jess added gruffly, "Hey Jess."

"Hey." he said before turning back to Rory, "You wanna go to the bookstore with me?"

"Sure." she said thankful for the distraction. "I'll see you later?" she said to Lorelai

"Sure meet me at Luke's for dinner."

"OK."

xxxxxx

The next day at school was relatively normal. She noticed the teachers were watching her closely. She assumed they thought she was depressed or something. After the day ended she went home and waited for Lorelai to get there so they could go to Friday Night Dinner. Hours later they were standing in front of the Gilmore's door staring at it while they both waited for the other to ring the bell. "They are your parents." Rory said whining

"They like you better."

"Ring the bell." Rory said starting to get aggravated

"Fine." Lorelai said reaching out and ringing it. The door was immediately opened by Emily Gilmore.

"Took you long enough. I've been standing here for ten minutes."

"Sorry grandma." Rory said walking in and taking off her coat.

"It's fine darling."

"Why are you answering the door, did you fire the maid again?" Lorelai asked snidely

Emily rolled her eyes and walked off both girls trailing behind her.

xxxxxx

Three hours later the two walked out of the Gilmore's both exhausted. Neither said a word until they passed Chilton. Lorelai saw the crestfallen look on Rory's face. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." she said softly

"Is Chilton really that bad lately?" she said trying to get Rory to tell her something that was going on

"No it's fine." Rory said barely above a whisper

"You'd tell me if something was wrong right?"

"Yeah. Of course." Rory said her voice filled with obvious disbelief

Authors Note: This chapter originally had to the whole picnic auction but it was way to long in my opinion... read and review


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The afternoon of the auction was fast approaching. Lorelai and Rory were walking towards the gazebo where the auction was taking place. Lorelai smiled happily looking around at all the people who filled the square awaiting the auction. The turnout was fantastic this year. She grabbed Rory's basket and went and signed both baskets up. Then she came back and looked at Rory who looked a little frantic. "Don't worry, I'm sure Dean will get here. You'll have someone to bid on your basket."

"Yeah I know." Rory said sighing

"Aren't you excited?"

"I'm jumping up and down on the inside I swear." Rory said sarcastically while thinking _and the whole time I'm jumping up and down I'm screaming get me the hell out of here_.

"You know what's wonderful about this festival?"

"No what?" Rory asked as if she cared

"That it always falls on the day after trash day. Therefore, al the stuff that you forgot to throw out that you would normally be stuck with for another week, you can instead put in a pretty basket and auction off for charity."

Rory nodded. "That is wonderful." she said sarcasm dripping from her words

"Feeling the love radiating off of you today Ror. What's the problem?"

"Nothing. I'm just cranky I guess."

"Hey guys!" Lane said as she walked up

Lorelai noticed that Rory's mood picked up some. "Hey Lane. How's everything going?" Lorelai asked smiling and waving politely at Mrs. Kim

"Just fine if you consider the fact that my cousin is buying my basket." Lane said while groaning

"It could be worse." Rory said looking at Lane pointedly

"How do you figure?" Lorelai asked

"Her head could be on fire." Rory answered simply

xxxxxx

"Okay, I'm still at five, do I hear ten? Five going once, five going twice, sold to the young man for five dollars. You know what's's nice, you can put a couple of rolls of toilet paper in there and stick it someplace in the bathroom– decorative and convenient. Now this next one may not look like much..." Taylor droned up at the podium

"Mine." Rory said to no one in particular

"...but remember people– good things come in small packages." Taylor finished

"How badly does he want to be hosting a game show?" Lorelai said mockingly

"Hm, he can taste it." Lane answered

"Let's start the bidding at three dollars." Taylor said

"HEY!" Rory yelled slightly offended

"Five dollars" Dean said smiling at Rory

"Now that's the kind of bidding we want to hear today." Taylor said excitedly

"He's good, He's very good." Lorelai said approvingly

"Five dollars do I hear ten dollars." Taylor asked

"Ten dollars." came a voice from the back of the square.

Rory whipped around immediately and saw Jess. He smiled at her and she looked at him puzzled as to why he was bidding on her basket.

"Okay I have ten dollars. Do I have fifteen?"

"Twenty." Jess called out the whole time keeping eye contact with Rory

"Twenty dollars do I hear twenty five?"

"Thirty." Dean snapped

"Okay see you boys don't seem to understand the way this thing works." Taylor said trying to bring some of the attention back towards himself

"Forty dollars." Jess said still locked in on Rory

"Fifty dollars." Dean said watching as Rory's eyes moved between him and Jess repeatedly

"_What's he doing Rory?" Lorelai snapped_

"_How should I know?" Rory snapped back_

"_It looks like he's trying to outbid Dean." Lane said stating the obvious_

"_I know that but why?" Lorelai asked still looking at Rory_

"_I don't know." Rory repeated_

"Excuse me, have either of you noticed how tiny this thing is?" Taylor asked confused

"Seventy five." Jess said regaining Rory's attention

"_Did you ask him to do this?"_

"_No! Why would I ask him to outbid Dean?" Rory snapped angrily_

"_So that you didn't have to spend the day with Dean." Lorelai stated_

"Now we're not talking cents gentlemen we're talking dollars remember." Taylor pointed out

"Uh oh Dean's hesitating." Lorelai said pointing out the obvious

"Eighty." Dean said faltering a little

"He does not have eighty dollars to spend on that basket." Rory told them

"Eighty? Eight dollars?"

"Ninety." Jess said this time gaining Rory's attention and keeping it.

"Ninety dollars, is that correct?"

"You know I don't think he'll have to." Lorelai said reassuringly

"Okay, we've got ninety going once, ninety dollars going twice... sold to the nice hoodlum in the back for ninety dollars." Rory heard Taylor say

"I'm trying to think, uh, in what scenario this situation could be construed as a positive." Lorelai said to both Lane and Rory

"Well.." Lane asked

"Well, no one's head's on fire." Lorelai said calmly stealing Rory's excuse from earlier

"Dean looks mad." Lane said as she saw Dean storming towards Rory

"What the hell was that!" Dean yelled at Rory

"I have no idea." Rory said truthfully and calmly

"I'm not sure I believe that!"

"Well it wasn't planned or anything! I haven't spoken to Jess since we saw him in Doose's."

"Why would he do that Rory!" Dean demanded

"Maybe he just wanted to spend some time with her... maybe he was just hungry." Lane said trying to help

"Was I talking to you Lane!" Dean snapped

"Don't you dare yell at her!" Rory snapped back

"I'm sorry Lane, I'm just so made at Jess."

"Whatever it's fine. I'm gonna go David looks like he's ready to eat whatever Mama put in my basket. Call me later Ror." Lane said before walking off

"Bye." Rory called after her before turning around to face Dean again. "You have no right talking to her like that!"

"I said I was sorry!" Dean yelled

"Dean..."

"I'm gonna kill him!"

"He was probably just joking around."

"I don't care."

"Why would he do this Rory?"

"You keep asking me that question and I still don't have an answer for it."

"I gotta tell you this is probably the one insane town festival type thing I can get behind." Jess said as he walked over to Rory

"Glad you had fun." Dean said angrily

"Thanks." he said to Dean then turned to Rory, "So shall we?"

"Shall we what?" Dean said answering for her

"Shall we go." Jess said slowly

"She's not leaving with you."

"The person who buys the basket wins the company of the person who makes the basket for lunch." he points to the basket, "basket," then points to Rory, "basket maker," then points to Dean, "guy who didn't bring enough money."

Dean looks over at Rory pleadingly. "Rory."

"I have to have lunch with Jess Dean."

"Rory..."

"I'll call you afterward."

"I had the whole day planned out."

"Should have brought more money then." Jess said snidely

"If you don't shut your mouth..."

"Dean stop. The rules are he buys the basket he gets lunch with the basket maker. He just paid ninety dollars to eat a meal with me. Now I have to go, but like I said I'll call you afterwards, immediately afterwards. The second he's out of sight afterwards. It's for charity Dean."

"And they already have the money Rory so let's just go."

"I can't."

"Are you ready to go Ror?"

"No she's not." Dean answered for her again

"I'm sorry when I really want to talk to Rory should I call her Dean instead?" Jess snapped

"It's fine Jess let's go."Rory said pulling Jess away and walking away from Dean

"RORY!" Dean yelled

"I'll call you later."

xxxxxx

Rory shoved Jess hard. "Why would you do that!"

"Antagonizing Dean is fun."

"Jess..."

"I overheard you freaking out upstairs the other day with Lane about this whole thing. You said you didn't want to spend the day alone with Dean. I solved your problem, now let's go get a pizza." Jess said smiling knowing that she wasn't really mad

Rory pouted. "But what about my basket?"

"No chance in hell Gilmore. No chance in hell."

"Don't think that I've forgotten you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Lane."

"I'm sorry about that. You wanna push me in the lake? It's cathartic I hear." Jess said pointing to the lake that Luke pushed him in

"Maybe in a little while." Rory said smiling.

Rory walks ahead of Jess and something falling from her wrist catches his attention. He reaches down and picks it up and smiles when he sees it's the bracelet Dean made for her. He swiftly puts it in his pocket and then jogs to catch up to her.

xxxxxx

"I'm home!" Rory called out as she entered the house hours later

"Kitchen." Lorelai said loudly

"Hey." Rory said walking in and sitting down at the table

"Hey."

"So who ended up with your basket_?"_

"Mrs. Patty tried to sell me."

"Again?"

"Yup so I suckered Luke into it."

"How'd you swing that?" Rory asked impressed

"I'm extremely convincing..." at Rory's unsure look she added, "ok ok I begged."

"Sounds about right."

"So what'd you and Jess do?"

"We got a pizza and went to the bookstore."

"Dean called."

"Oh."

"Six times..." she added and then when Rory looked like she didn't care she also added, "You know you were only promised to Jess for lunch. Trips to the bookstore weren't included."

"I like the bookstore, so does Jess. It's next to the pizza. What's the big deal?" Rory asked defensively

"You don't seem to angry at Jess for causing a fight between you and Dean." Lorelai stated

"Mom."

"In fact you seem relieved. You even seemed relieved out there earlier."

"Mom."

"Almost like it was planned."

"It was not planned. I'm so tired of saying that! How many times do I have to tell people that it wasn't planned?"

"As many times as it takes to make me believe you."

"Don't believe me. I don't care! I'm going to my room."

"What's going on with you kid!" Lorelai yelled following her into her room

"Nothing!"

"I don't believe you. You've been flipping back and forth between happy, sad, and angry all month. I need you to tell me what's going on Ror. I can't help you fix it if I don't know what I'm fixing."

"There is nothing for you to fix. You couldn't fix this if you wanted to."

"Are you pregnant!"

"Are you insane?" Rory snapped

"I had weird mood swings when I was pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant! I've never even had sex! And unless I completely forgot I wasn't involved in an immaculate conception. I'm the Chilton Mar..." Rory said stopping herself from finishing the word Mary. Her eyes immediately filed with tears that began running down her cheeks.

Seeing Rory break broke Lorelai's heart. "Ror..." she said softly barely about a whisper

"Just get out." Rory said slamming the door behind Lorelai and curling into a ball on her bed, where she proceeded to cry until she passed out from exhaustion.

AN: Read and Review People Read and Review


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

(Monday Morning)

After the weekend from hell as she liked to refer to it Rory decided she was going to start avoiding people. Talking only seemed to aggravate her even more so avoidance seemed like the only rational answer. Unfortunately Lorelai didn't feel the need to allow her to do so.

"Morning!" Lorelai said happily as she danced around the coffee pot. When Rory didn't answer she stopped dancing and watched Rory fill her book bag with textbooks off the table. "Your dad called last night."

"OK."

"He's coming over later today." she said hoping for some kind of reaction

"OK." she stated emotionless

"He's bringing Sherry." Lorelai told her knowing she'd get a reaction out of her now

Rory shrugged. "OK."

"She wants to meet you."

"OK."

"Is that the only word you know this morning." Lorelai asked exasperated

"No."

"Where are you going!" she yelled as Rory walked out of the house

"School." she yelled back before closing the door.

Lorelai sighed and picked up the phone. "Hey Michel, It's Lorelai. I won't be able to make it to the inn until later this afternoon."

xxxxxx

The first half of the day progressed slowly for Rory. She was pleasantly satisfied when she had made it through lunch without anyone mentioning anything that was not school related to her. She was nearing her locker when she saw Summer and Lemon standing there waiting for her.

"Hey Mary." Summer said snidely

Rory sighed. "Go away Summer."

Summer shook her head slowly. "Nope not gonna happen Mary."

Rory took a deep breath to conceal the fact that hearing people call her Mary still bothered her. She shot a pleading look in Lemon's direction hoping that the girl would take Summer away. "What do you want?"

"How's our favorite blondie doing?"

"I wasn't aware of any favorites that we shared with one another." Rory snipped

"Oh come on, you know exactly who I'm talking about. How's Tristan?"

Rory slammed her locker shut finally coming face to face with Summer. She looked her dead straight into the eyes. "Considering I don't talk to Tristan, I'm not sure. But I'm almost positive he doesn't send his regards to you."

"Wow. She's feisty. Some would say you sound almost jealous."

Rory squinted her eyes together slightly. "Of what you twit."

"The fact that I have something with Tristan."

"Had something with Tristan. Had not have had. You have nothing with Tristan. You don't know a single thing about him. You don't know where he is. You don't know what he's doing. If you have something with him shouldn't you know the answer to every question you've shoved down my throat for the last month?"

"Excuse me!" Summer snapped angrily, "Who exactly do you think you are?"

Rory groaned. "I'm so tired of this." she said tears threatening to fill her eyes "Why won't you just leave me alone? You broke up with him. Move on. You're pathetic."

"And you're a bitch. You think that just because he talked to you and told you what was going on that he cared. Newsflash Mary you're always going to be nothing but a notch in his bedpost."

Lemon looked over in Rory's direction and saw that there were tears in her eyes. She also knew that Summer had pushed all the buttons she needed to and that if she tried much harder Rory would be crying in the hallway. "Come on Summer let's just go."

"No. The girl needs to learn her place around here. She knows where he is. I want to know where Tristan is dammit."

"I really don't know what you're talking about Summer. I haven't the faintest idea where you're fallen king is. Now please leave me alone."

"I don't believe you."

"Maybe she really doesn't know anything. Maybe all she did was yell at him for being late and then he just left. Or maybe he called her Mary and she yelled at him and he left when she got mad."

"See listen to your friend. I honestly don't know where he is, nor do I care." Rory lied

Summer glared angrily in Rory's direction before turning on her heel and storming off.

Rory looked over at Lemon for a moment trying to figure out why she did what she did. "Why?"

"Whatever he said to you is private. I get that. He told you not the whole world. His words were meant for you and you alone. I respect that. Anyone else would have ran around and blabbed it right away."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry about Summer. I don't even know why she cares so much."

"Yeah." Rory replied unsure of what to say

"I should go before she notices that I didn't storm off with her." Lemon said before walking away

Paris walked over to Rory curiously. "Did I seriously see you talking to Lemon?"

"She was apologizing for Summer, who by the way just finished attacking me again."

Paris looked closer at Rory and saw her eyes were red and it was obvious that she had been about to cry. "I can tell."

"What?"

"You look like you could burst into tears any minute now."

"I'm just tired of everyone hounding me."

"His goodbye must have been worth it."

"Why do you say that?"

"You're putting yourself through hell here Rory. You could end it all and just tell people what you know..."

"So that's what this is about. You want me to open up to you so I'll tell you what I know about Tristan... I should have known better!" Rory interrupted and then stormed off angry never giving Paris a chance to defend herself.

xxxxxx

Rory walked through the front door after school still fuming over Summer and Paris. The first thing she came into contact with was Lorelai. "Are you in a better mood Rory?"

"God, you're like a pop-up book from hell." she snapped when Lorelai popped up in front of her from nowhere

"That's sweet Ror." Lorelai said bitterly, "Guess the answer to my question is no."

"I'm peachy thanks." Rory said dropping her book bag on the floor. "Why is the house clean?" Rory asked confusion written on her face

"Where you not listening to me at all this morning?" Lorelai asked annoyed

"Obviously not." Rory said looking at her like 'duh.

"Your Dad and Sherry are coming over."

"Oh yeah, I heard that I just forgot. When do they get here?"

"Hi kid." came a voice from behind her

"Dad. You came." Rory said shocked

"Of course I did." Chris said unsure of why she looked surprised

"I'm still getting used to you actually showing up when you say you are." Rory said sarcasm dripping from her words

"Honey, look who Dad brought." Lorelai said trying to draw attention away from Rory's attitude

"This is Sherry. Sherry this is Rory." Chris said pointing towards Sherry

Rory simply smiled a half smile and nodded. Sherry however became extremely bubbly and excited. "Finally, finally, finally. I am so beyond thrilled, I can't tell you. All he does is talk about you. I couldn't wait to meet this amazing person."

"Well, she lives up to the hype let me tell you." Lorelai said proudly

"Is my face turning red?" Rory asked somewhat bitterly

"Oh yeah, beet red." Lorelai said smiling slightly

"Oh I'm sorry. I put you on the spot. I've just been really looking forward to this." Sherry said apologetically

"Whatever." Rory said passively

Sherry looked over at Christopher smiling nervously. Chris looked over at Lorelai who simply shrugged as if to say _I don't know what's gotten into her_.

"I was hoping we'd get a chance to see where Rory lives and her room." Sherry said once again excited

"Oh, my room's no big deal." Rory said desperately trying to keep them out of her room

"Oh and the books! I've heard all about the books, I can't wait to see the books." Sherry practically yelled in excitement

"Well let's go see the books." Lorelai said looking at Rory pleading with her to stop with the attitude

"I'd really rather we didn't." Rory said blandly

"Didn't what sweetie?" Chris asked curiously

"Go in my room. I'd rather we didn't go traipsing around my room and touching things, especially my books." Rory said coldly

"She's very protective of her literature." Lorelai said laughing it off her eyes begging Christopher to do the same

If Sherry was upset by Rory's attitude she didn't let on. "And your uniform is darling, really. I love the blue! You look so beautiful in your uniform."

"I look like every other female at Chilton." Rory muttered under her breath but also noticing that both Lorelai and Chris heard her.

"But I bet you look great in anything..." Sherry continued to rattle on

"Oh yeah you should see her in chaps." Lorelai cracked making Chris laugh

"Really?" Sherry asked stupidly

Rory rolled her eyes. "No."

"You know I went to private school too."she said trying to steer the conversation back to something that didn't make her sound like an idiot

"Really." Rory replied dryly

"Except that our colors were white and bright red. I looked hideous." Sherry said now smiling

"Oh she's being self deprecating. You looked cute in that outfit" Chris said defending her

"No no, I looked like a peppermint stick."

Rory laughed. "You think people got hungry just looking at you?"

"Rory!" Lorelai snapped

"What?"

"You're being rude." Chris stated

Rory laughed loudly at that. "Please don't even start to act like you around enough to know when I'm bring rude Christopher. I barely know you."

"Rory stop it, you can't talk to your father like that." Lorelai snapped

"It's fine. I understand. She doesn't like me, but I'm set on changing her mind." Sherry said brightly

"Sher..." Chris started

"Rory can I run something by you?"

"Sure." Rory said bored

"I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me tonight, just the two of us." Sherry asked hopefully

Rory nodded. "Sure tell you what we'll sit down and make the plans as soon as I'm done with my lobotomy." Rory snapped before walking into her room and shutting the door.

AN: Read and Review people...


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Chris stared off at his daughter as she slammed her bedroom door. He looked over at Sherry who looked distraught and Lorelai who looked embarrassed. He had never heard his daughter talk like that to anyone. He whipped around to Lorelai. "What in the hell is wrong with her!" he yelled loudly

Lorelai flinched. "I told you Christopher. I told you that now probably wasn't the best time for a visit but you insisted. You kept saying I want to see my daughter Lorelai, you said she won't spend her Christmas break with me so I want to see my daughter. And I told you. She's been in a weird mood. Now's not a good time. But you wouldn't listen."

"I'm not just going to forget that you didn't answer my question Lorelai. What in the hell is wrong with our daughter?" Chris barked out

"Chris I don't think yelling is going to help anything." Sherry said but went ignored by Chris and Lorelai.

"I don't know what is wrong with her. She won't talk to me about it." Lorelai admitted

"She has never spoken to me like that. I don't think I've ever heard her speak to anyone like that." Chris said softly

"Just let it go Chris." Lorelai implored

"I will not let it go!" Chris said suddenly yelling again. "She was rude and disrespectful. She spoke to Sherry as if she were dirt!"

Lorelai sighed and stood up as Chris stood up. "I told you now wasn't a good time for a visit. You can't be mad because she's in a bad mood, she's been like this for two months." Lorelai said then added... "Chris..." when she saw him start walking towards Rory's room, "Chris come back here." she said already too late because he opened and then slammed Rory's door behind him.

"What is your problem! Who do you think you are?" Chris snapped at Rory

"Excuse me? Who do you think you are! You show up out of the blue for the fist time in months and I'm just supposed to fawn all over you and your new girlfriend!"

"Rory..."

"You didn't honestly bring her here thinking that I would instantly love her and we'd bond and be best friends before the end of the night did you?"

"Is this because of that guy you're dating... what's his name... Dean?"

"NO. Why would you think that?"

"Are you two fighting or something? You're mother said that you've been in this funk for two months now."

"It hasn't been two months." Rory said beneath her breath

"Excuse me!"

"I said it hasn't been two months!"

"Then how long has it been Lorelai Leigh Gilmore?"

"One month, twelve days, sixteen hours, and forty three minutes. Now I'm going to make this very clear, crystal clear." Rory said walking over to her door and opening it. "I don't want to bond with Malibu Barbie out there, no matter how much I enjoy peppermint sticks, I also don't want to you talk to you. Now get out of my room!"

xxxxxx

Lorelai looked up again when she heard the door slam for the third time. She knew that Rory had locked it this time. She looked at Chris' face and could tell that he made things worse.

"She needs help with whatever it is Lore." he said his voice sounding defeated

Lorelai nodded. "I know but she has to talk to me and tell me what's wrong. I can't fix it if I don't know what I'm trying to fix."

"What happened one month twelve days sixteen hours and forty three minutes ago?"

"Huh?"

"She said that's when the mood started."

"It all started after the Romeo and Juliet play."

"So maybe it's grade related or something." Chris said motioning for Sherry to start gathering her stuff.

"Yeah." Lorelai said unsure what she should say

"So um... we're going to go. Let me know what's going on with her and let me know when she's our Rory again." Chris said uncomfortably

"Of course. It was nice meeting you Sherry." Lorelai said just as uncomfortably

Sherry nodded. "You too Lorelai."

xxxxxx

"I don't know what to do Sook." Lorelai said sadly

"Well if it's school related you could always call..."

"No."

"I'm just saying he'd know if it was or not and he does love..."

"No."

"Lorelai. I know you went to your parents for Chilton when you didn't want to and I know how much that took out of you. But what if going to him will help Rory."

Lorelai sighed. "I can't do it."

"You may not have a choice." Sookie said sadly

xxxxxx

Lorelai picked the phone up and dialed six numbers before hanging up. Sighing and taking a deep breath she picked it up and this time managed to get all seven numbers out. She let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding when she heard the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hello?"

Lorelai sat there just listening to him breath for a few seconds before she said, "Hi Max. It's me Lorelai"

AN: Sorry just a short little filler chapter that I wanted to end on this cliff hanger... Read and Review please...


	14. Chapter 13

AN: I always hated how they just wrote Max out. There was no gradualness to it. It was just Max is here one second and gone the next. So I'm putting him back in. But that doesn't mean that there will be a romantic relationship between the two of them, just that we remember he wasn't just Lorelai's fiancé but he was Rory's teacher and he cared about her very much.

Chapter Thirteen

"Lorelai?" Max said surprised

"Yeah. Look, I know that we haven't talked since I freaked out and ended our engagement but we need to talk. It's important." Lorelai rambled out

"About what?" Max said interested

"Rory."

"I completely agree."

"I'm guessing that I was right in assuming that the mood she's been in for the last month or two is because of some school thing she hasn't told me about." Lorelai sighed in relief

"I'm not sure I know what you mean. If you're talking about her grades you'd be wrong. In fact she's doing better academically now than she ever has before." max said confused

"Oh. Well since you didn't refute the mood I'm guessing she has it there as well."

Max nodded before answering. "She's all over the place here Lore. One minute she's fine the next she's either staring off into space in front of random lockers and doors, looking at her locker like it's out to get her, arguing with other students or crying. I can't remember the last time I saw her smile. I'm worried."

"Do you know why? I mean what's wrong with her?" Lorelai asked hopeful

Max sighed. "I really think that you should talk to her."

"She won't talk to me. She slams doors instead. I need help Max. She practically bit her father's head off. She's insulting people that she doesn't even know, talking to people like they're dirt. I don't know what to do with her. You know that's not Rory."

"Ok... ok... this is mainly what I've picked up from Chilton gossip. I think that she's having a difficult time adjusting to the absence of Mr. Dugrey, and the way Chilton is reacting to his disappearance." he told her reluctantly

"What?"

"He apparently spoke to her about something before he left and the Chilton gossips got wind of it. A few students have apparently been hounding her for information on where he is. Nobody knows where Mr. Dugrey went. Not even the administration. All we know is that his records were released into the custody of his parents."

"And no one has thought to stop the students from badgering her?"

"Lorelai no one has witnessed the badgering except for other students and unless Rory complains you know that there is nothing we can do about it."

Lorelai sighed. "So Tristan is definitely gone?"

"Yeah. It certainly seems as if he is." Max confirmed

"Rory's been acting like this since the night of the Romeo and Juliet play. I remember seeing her after she got off the stage. Her eyes looked hollow, guarded. She looked awful."

"That's the last time anyone at Chilton saw Tristan."

Lorelai nodded simply since she had assumed as much. "Do you think she misses him? You saw the two of them during the day. Were they even friends?"

"I honestly never saw anything that would make me assume that they were friends. The few encounters I witnessed between the two were full of hateful words and disdainful looks."

"So you think its because she's being badgered by Chilton asses?"

"I don't know Lore. I don't know how she really felt about him. I know that he cared about her more than he ever let on, but with her it really seemed like hate. She may even be furious with him because when he said goodbye or whatever to her he made her the center of Chilton gossip mills."

Lorelai frowned. "Thank you Max."

"It's nothing. I've been concerned about Rory for a while now. I just knew that it wasn't my place to get involved. Not anymore." Max said softly and sadly

"Max..."

"When you ended our engagement Lorelai it hurt. I had to lose you and Rory. You know how I feel about Rory. She was going to be my stepdaughter. I loved her. I'm having a hard time turning off the over protective parent vibes..."

"And I wouldn't want you to. I'm glad that you're looking out for her around there."

"Trust me when I say that I've always been watching out for her. She's the daughter that I never had and always wanted. I'm not going to let anyone around her hurt her again. I'm going to do everything in my power to stop the badgering around here. Plus this is the last week of school before winter break, maybe when she gets back there will be some other scandal and they'll have forgotten about her. Goodbye Lorelai." Max said before hanging up

"Goodbye Max." Lorelai said softly already hearing a dial tone on her end of the phone before placing the phone back on it's cradle.

xxxxxx

Christmas break flew by. Rory's attitude improved being away from Chilton. Lorelai still couldn't remember the last time Rory had truly smiled but at least there had been no more attitude blowouts. She had apologized to Christopher and for the way she treated Sherry but still stood by the fact that she wasn't ready for Sherry to be a part of her life. Lorelai never spoke of her conversation with Max.

Tristan had been gone for almost four months when school started back up. Rory woke up that morning from a fitful sleep. While sitting at a table in Luke's she began thinking more and more about him. She hoped that nobody would bother her this semester about him. She wished she had some idea where he was other than military school in North Carolina. She hated the fact that she knew she was worried about him. The only thing that gave her any peace with the fact that he was gone was that she knew he could take care of himself. But that didn't stop the look in his eyes that clearly showed he was terrified of what was to come from ripping that peace right away from her. She wondered why he only said goodbye to her. She thought perhaps that she was the only one whom he trusted with the truth. She hadn't known at the time that there was going to be some big Dugrey family cover up to hide where Tristan really was. She hadn't known that the next day at school no one was going to leave her alone. All she knew was that the bane of her existence was standing in front of her his eyes clearly saying save me, telling her he was leaving. The moment felt oddly intimate when Rory thought back on it. He was staring into her eyes and she was staring into his. Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head to stop them from spilling over before Lorelai got back from the counter. Obviously she didn't rid herself of them quick enough because Jess sat down next to her.

"You ok?" he asked concerned

Rory smiled a large fake smile. "I'm fine."

"You should talk to someone about it Rory." Jess said practically begging her to open up. He knew that she hadn't said a single thing about this Tristan guy since she said something to Lane months ago and that Lane also hadn't brought it up.

"Jess, I'm fine. Ok really fine. One hundred percent ok. I'm over it."

"What's it?"

"None of your business Jess. Now go away before Mom gets here and you get conned into cleaning the gutters again."

"What are you doing after school today?" Jess asked curiously

"Something with Dean."

"You've been spending a lot of time with him lately." Jess pointed out

"He's my boyfriend." Rory also pointed out

"I know. I just thought that you were kind of sick of him. You know with the basket auction and the accusations," he said and then mumbled, "and with the whole Tristan thing."

"What did you say!" she snapped

"Rory. You know I overheard you and Lane talking about him. I don't know why you're so surprised I'd bring him up."

"That was almost four months ago. I'm over it."

"That's the second time you've said that this morning. Did you convince yourself of it yet or are you still lying to everyone including yourself?"

"Excuse me?"

"You aren't over it, him whatever. I don't know who he is, you've never mentioned him to me. I don't know what you felt for him but you should ask yourself if you're really over whatever it was, because darlin' it doesn't seem like it to me and if you're really honest with yourself it doesn't seem like it to you either." Jess said getting up and walking away before she could comment one way or the other.

Lorelai walked over and saw the frown on Rory's face. "I was afraid of this."

"Of what?" Rory asked confused

"That the thought of school would cause this sad look on your face."

"No, it's not. I just have a headache. I promise. I'm ok really. The break did me a lot of good."

"You seem better too." Lorelai said smiling

Rory looked down at her watch and took a final gulp of her coffee. "Mmm... I gotta go or I'll miss my bus."

"See you later sweetheart." Lorelai called as Rory walked out

Rory breezed out the door and was about to pass Patty's when Dean called out to her. "Rory!"

She whipped around and saw him. She forced a smile and waved before walking over to him. "Hey." The second she got up to the door the words _'Gee I really wish we could continue your analysis on how pathetic I am._' right after she heard herself say _'You make it impossible for anyone to be nice to you. No wonder you had to join our group. Anyone who's actually suffered through the experience of going out with you would absolutely know better.'_ . Dean reached over to hug her and she flinched moving backwards quickly not feeling right about hugging him while thinking of Tristan. The way she had spoke to him made her disgusted and left a metallic feeling in her mouth. She remembered regretting it the second she said it and saw the look of sadness flash through his eyes. It had been brief but it had been there and she remembered feeling ashamed that she had said what she did.

"You ok?" Dean asked worriedly

Rory nodded still keeping herself at arms length of him. "Yeah come on I gotta get to the bus stop before I miss my bus."

Dean simply nodded and followed Rory to her bus stop.

AN: Short Sweet and just a filler...


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

The bus ride was full of impossible to ignore thoughts of Tristan. She had known that going back to Chilton would cause that so she was unsure why she felt surprised when her thoughts had led to him. She had managed to push him out of her thoughts for most of the break. She only allowed herself to think of him in the privacy of her own room late at night when she was sure her thoughts and emotions would remain private. Christmas had been particularly difficult for her. She had learned from a Friday Night Dinner that the Dugrey's were going to Aspen for the holidays but that Tristan had decided to stay in boarding school, claiming to be madly in love with Switzerland and didn't want to leave. The look of disbelief on her face had been noticed but never mentioned by her mother, but she knew that Lorelai had been worried. Knowing that he was alone in North Carolina spending Christmas alone and probably miserable had made if hard for her to spend her own holidays happily. She had smiled and played happy for all the appropriate people. She remembered the forced smile she wore when Dean had given her a copy of _Stiff: The Life of Human Cadavers_, claiming he remembered she had said it looked interesting. He never noticed her eyes dart straight past the title and to the author Mary Roach. Her thoughts immediately went to Tristan. Ten minutes later she excused herself and walked outside. Once sure she was alone and wouldn't be interrupted she sat and cried. Cried for Tristan, cried for herself, and cried for something that had never really began but had certainly ended far too soon. She was unsure after she went back in if anyone noticed that she had been off for the rest of the evening.

Thinking of Dean caused her to sigh. She had been trying to shove Tristan out of her mind by spending excessive amounts of time with Dean. On days when he had to work she often showed up at Doose's to entertain him and they spent every night either at the movies or in her living room watching movies and eating junk food. She was doing a good job at hiding how miserable she was but ever since her breakdown on Christmas it had become more difficult.

New Years passed and she was certain that Tristan had probably loved this holiday, being the delinquent that he was. When the ball dropped she whispered a soft Happy New Years Tristan before she went to sleep, abstaining from all the town's holiday antics claiming a head ache.

The bus stopped and acting on auto pilot she got off and approached Chilton. Nothing had physically changed about the school but she couldn't help but smile when a hush didn't fill the courtyard as she stepped on it.

xxxxxx

Paris had watched Rory the majority of the day. She has watched as Rory drifted in and out of classes never really paying attention to what was going on around her. She noticed Rory's eyes water slightly when she passed Tristan's old locker, but she also noticed how fast she had shoved the watery tears back down, never letting them fall. She felt a slight feeling of proudness, knowing that Rory was now at least taking control of her emotions and not crying at the drop of a hat anymore. The bell had rang releasing the last class of the day and Paris stood in the hallway watching as Rory lingered in front of Tristan's locker after most of Chilton had left the building.

Rory's hand reached up and she slowly traced the number with her index finger. Rory's shoulders slump in sadness and defeat and suddenly as if she knew she was being watched turned around locking eyes with Paris.

Paris walked over to her and sighed. "I'm pretty sure that standing in front of the lockers locked away in nostalgia has caused you to miss your bus." she said abrasively but in what could be construed as a soft tone when being used by Paris

Rory looked down at her watch and then back up at Paris. "There'll be another one in about an hour."

Paris nodded. "Do you want a ride?" she asked unsure why she was being nice

Rory looked at her closely. "Are you feeling ok?" she joked

Paris rolled her eyes. "If you don't want a ride then fine, you can sit here and wait for an hour and then sit on the bus for the next two while it makes a million stops between here and country bumpkinville." she snapped before turning and walking away

Rory sighed and looked back at Tristan's locker. She reached out and touched it one last time before turning around and running after Paris into the parking lot. "Paris wait!" she called out smiling slightly as Paris stopped and turned around in front of her car

"What?" she snapped

Rory sighed. "I don't want to talk about..."

"I'm not going to ask you why you just tracing the numbers on Tristan's old locker. Now get in the car." Paris said testily

Rory breathed a sigh of relief and got in. Paris had barely pulled out of Chilton when Rory started talking. "You told me before Christmas that you just wanted to know he was ok..."

"And you gave me a cryptic answer. Tristan's is my oldest childhood friend. I don't want to hound you about him, mainly because I don't want to be like Summer and also because I have a modicum of respect for you and I'm tired of watching you cry in the bathroom. I just want to know that he's ok."

Rory sighed. "I don't know why he only told me what was going on..."

"Yes you do." Paris interrupted looking at her like she was insane. "Don't play coy Gilmore. You know he cares about you."

Rory nodded. "But he obviously didn't want anyone else knowing, especially now that there is this big huge DuGrey family cover up..."

"So that's a no to the Suisse boarding school then?"

"Unless he lied to me, yes."

Paris shook her head. "He didn't lie to you. I don't know what he said but I'm sure he didn't lie to you."

Rory sighed and there was a long silence that lasted for about five minutes before she finally spoke again. "I'm sure that he's ok. I mean he's Tristan, he can handle just about anything right?"

Paris stopped at the red light and looked at Rory closely. She could see the need to believe that he could in fact handle anything the elder DuGrey's threw at him in her eyes. She nodded. "Yeah. He can take care of himself. He's never needed them for anything."

Rory sighed. "Good." The rest of the car ride was silent.

AN: Just a small filler since I hadn't added a chapter in forever...


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Three days passed before anyone noticed anything off about Rory again. She was sitting in the school cafeteria not eating the food in front of her and her book and walkman were suspiciously absent. Her eyes were fixed on the table that Tristan used to sit at. Her facial expressions were miserable and her body language could easily be read as sad and uncomfortable. Her attention was torn away from the empty table by a commotion on the other side of the cafeteria. She snapped out of her daze just in time to hear someone say her name. She looked over in the direction the voice came from and sighed softly. "Yeah?"

"Did you see that Duncan was back?"

Rory looked at Paris closely. "What?"

"He must have been a very good boy during Christmas break if they pulled him out of Brentwood and put him back into Chilton." she said condescendingly before walking off

Rory nodded. "I guess Bowman will be happy his lackey is back." she mumbled

"You're right. Now if only Tristan would come back..." came a voice from behind the pair

Rory closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning around. "Oh that would be fantastic wouldn't it Summer? They could point and laugh while you throw yourself all over Tristan and then giggle like idiots while he turns you down."

"You Know Rory you really are quite the little bitch." Summer snapped

Rory placed her hand over her heart. "Thank you. Really. It makes me feel all warm and tingly inside when you say things like that. But really, I'd rather be a bitch than a slut. Word of advice. If he does come back from Switzerland, he likes his girls brainy not slutty. If you want him back you're going to have to grow a brain first." she said snapping her bag up in her hand forgetting about her lunch tray and storming off.

No one bothered Rory for the rest of the day.

xxxxxx

Friday night dinner came too fast for both Gilmore's. Rory was certain that this week would be the week that her grandmother finally noticed something was off with her, and Lorelai was certain that since Rory had come home from school Thursday obviously upset about something , she was going to get an earful from Emily Gilmore assuming that Bitty Charleston had been running her mouth again. And for some insane reason they had agreed to bring Dean with them.

Rory fidgeted in her seat the way to Hartford. Lorelai was certain she would hop out the second the car stopped. So five minutes after she had parked the car she was surprised that Rory hadn't moved a muscle to unhook her seat belt let alone get out of the car. She looked back at Dean who had barely said a single word the entire way up there and smiled. "Hun, why don't you give us a minute. Go ahead up to the door and we'll be there in a just a second." she asked sweetly knowing that Dean would do just as she asked. The second he was away from the car she looked at Rory. "Something wrong?" Lorelai asked curiously. She wasn't actually expecting Rory to answer so she was shocked when she did

"I called Summer a brainless slut two days ago."

"And..."

"And I'm pretty sure she told Charleston, who probably told his wife, who probably told Grandma that they've been having problems with me at Chilton since before Christmas break."

Lorelai nodded. "Why'd you call her a brainless slut?"

"Because she is a brainless slut." she said before unbuckling her seat belt and moving to get out of the car.

Lorelai nodded. "Fair enough." she said to no one in particular before grabbing Rory's arm and stopping her from getting out of the car. "Ror."

"What?"

"I'm going to stop acting like you haven't been acting 'off' since Christmas soon you know." she sighed as she watched Rory look at the ground. "You've been getting better at hiding it, but that doesn't mean I don't know about it."

Rory sighed. "I'm..."

"You're not fine. So don't even say it. I listened to you cry yourself to sleep last night."

Rory shook her head fiercely. "I don't want to talk about this right now." she said effectively ending the conversation by getting out of the car.

Lorelai acknowledged that but slipped in, "Just tell me what it would take to make you happy again?" before they got to Dean

"A time machine." Rory answered almost inaudibly just before the Gilmore's maid of the week opened the door. She quickly entered leaving Lorelai frowning behind her.

xxxxxx

An hour into dinner, Emily decided to bring up Chilton.

"Chilton's fine Grandma." Rory said politely

"And your classes?" Richard asked

"They're great."

"That's great."

"You know I was talking to Bitty Charleston yesterday..." Emily said missing Rory's face pale and Lorelai's nervous eye dart, "And she said that the Raymonds had re-enrolled their son Duncan. Do you know him? He's in your grade I believe."

Rory nodded. A nervous feeling in her stomach over powering her ability to form long sentences. "Yes."

Emily may have missed Rory's posture tense even more at the mention of Duncan but Lorelai didn't. "So what's so special about Duncan?" she asked talking to Emily but looking at Rory

"Well it was quite the scandal. Duncan Raymonds, Bowman Edwards, and Tristan DuGrey decided it would be a great idea to break into Ryan Edwards, Bowman's dad's safe. Lord knows what they were looking for in there. But the alarm went off and it must have scared them because they tried to get away. It took six cops to finally arrest them. After the all got out on bail, Bowman was shipped off to Andover, Duncan went to Brentwood and from what I hear Tristan is an inch away from getting kicked out of that Suisse boarding school he supposedly loves so much. If you ask me the boy shouldn't be in a place he loves. He should be somewhere that makes him miserable." Emily said distastefully

"I agree." Dean said surprising everyone at the table, since it was the first time he had initiated any kind of conversation all night

"You do?" Emily asked

"Of course. The guy is a jerk. He shouldn't be partying in Switzerland he should be somewhere he hates. Plus he broke the law he shouldn't be rewarded." Dean said calmly

Lorelai looked over at Rory who looked like she was going to blow any second now. "You know what's fun? Playing with your food. Isn't that fun?" Lorelai said trying to change the subject. Although it appeared it was unsuccessful.

"I wasn't aware that you had met Tristan DuGrey Dean." Richard said conversationally

Dean nodded. "Several times. He spent some time trying to date Rory."

Rory dropped her fork on her plate and looked at Dean angrily. "You know what I agree with Mom playing with your food is fun. Can you make your broccoli dance Mom?"

"I didn't know that. Well I'm glad he didn't succeed then. That boy is nothing but trouble. He's the black sheep of the DuGrey family. He's probably the reason Janlen is in such poor health." Richard said

Rory rolled her eyes. "You liked Tristan Grandpa." she reminded

"I highly doubt that Rory." Emily said

Rory sighed. "At my sixteenth birthday party. I was standing with Tristan in the foyer. Grandpa talked to him for almost ten minutes about Janlen and about himself and before Grandpa went to make the rounds again he said he approved of Tristan."

"Oh. Well he was probably drunk." Emily said

"Yes. Yes I must have been. There is no way I would have approved of Tristan DuGrey courting my only granddaughter. The boy is a miscreant."

Lorelai watched Rory look down at her plate sadly. In an attempt the cheer her up she tapped Rory's foot under the table. When Rory looked up at her she saw Lorelai making her broccoli dance.

"He's rude and he's a jerk. I completely agree with you Mr. Gilmore." Dean said smiling

At this point Rory has clearly heard enough from Dean. "Oh please. Do you even know what the word miscreant means?" she snapped

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore! That was out of line!" Emily snapped viciously

"I'm out of line?! You three are the ones sitting here talking about Tristan like he's the devil incarnate. None of you know him."

"Rory, why are you defending him?!" Dean snapped

"The whole safe thing was a joke. They didn't break in! Bowman had a key. The alarm that went off was a silent alarm so there's no way they heard it and tried to get away."

"Rory what are you..."

"There were not six cops chasing after them because not only did they not run but there were never any charges filed. The police that Bowman's dad called before he knew who got into the safe agreed to let their parents handle it themselves!" Rory yelled. "Bowman wasn't even in Andover. His parents decided to teach him a lesson by enrolling him in a public high school but no one in Hartford society is supposed to know that!"

Lorelai looked at Rory who was getting more and more worked up, then at the elder Gilmore who obviously couldn't believe they were being spoken to that way by Rory and then at Dean, who like Rory was getting worked up but he was just flat out hurt and angry.

"I mean if you want to gossip and bash people at least get your facts straight!"

"Rory you will stop speaking to your grandmother this way right this instant do you understand me?!" Richard demanded

"And oh my God! As far as Tristan goes, you'll all be happy to know that he's not even in a Suisse boarding school so there's no boarding school to be within an inch of getting kicked out of!"

"How would you know!" Dean yelled

"Dean, I seriously suggest lowering your voice." Lorelai threatened

"How do you know he's not in Switzerland?" Dean snapped this time his voice much lower

"Because I know where he is!" she yelled finally admitting it to someone. Tears started to well in her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Dean asked angrily

"I don't know who you three think you are. He's the least thing from happy. He's the only one out of the three that actually got punished! And you three are sitting here condemning him. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe when this all happened almost five months ago that he might have been going through something?!" she said tears spilling down her cheeks

Richard and Emily finally realizing that Rory was upset stopped their Tristan bashing and looked closely at her. But Dean was still far to angry at her. "Who cares what he was going through? Who cares the least little bit about Tristan DuGrey and his problems."

"I do!" Rory yelled before clapping her hand over her mouth in shock

Dean's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

Rory looked like a deer caught in the headlights. She had finally admitted it and she had gone one step further and admitted it out loud. And now that she had there was no going back. "I said I do." she said softly and slowly still in shock, "I care what he's going through. I care about his problems."

"Rory..." Lorelai started

"I care that he spent Christmas alone while his parents went skiing in Aspen."

"Rory..." Lorelai said again still not getting her attention

"You can't care about him and be with me Rory." Dean snapped

"Dean.. You don't want to..." Lorelai tried. Richard and Emily just sat there watching like it was a spectator sport.

"Excuse me?" Rory snapped

"You heard me Rory. You have to choose between the two of us."

"I'm not seeing Tristan Dean! There's nothing to choose between." she said angrily

"I love you. I want to be with you. And you love me too. Pick me."

Rory looked at him her eyes wide. She kept hearing Lane tell her that she couldn't stay with Dean if she didn't feel the same way he did. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths but her thoughts were attacked by the memory of Tristan kissing her. "Dean you really want to do this?" she asked once she got the ability to talk back

"You can't be with me and him both."

"And the fact that I'm not with him is apparently completely irrelevant."

"Maybe you're not technically with him but..."

"There is no but! I'm not in any way shape or form with Tristan Dugrey."

"Then where have you been for the last four and half months Rory?! Because it hasn't been with me!"

Rory nodded. "You're right. I haven't been with you. And that's not fair to you. It's time to fix it."

"Rory..." Lorelai started not liking the look she saw on Rory's face or the tone of her voice. "What are you..."

"Grandma. Grandpa?"

"Yes Rory?" Emily asked

"Would it be ok if I stayed here tonight?" she asked politely

Emily and Richard nodded. "Of course but I'm afraid I don't understand..."

"I'd like to go up to my room can I be excused from the table?"

"Of course."

"Mom do you think you could drive my ex- boyfriend home?" she said before walking out of the room.

Dean immediately stood up and followed after her. "What are you talking about Rory?! We can't break up! I love you!"

Rory sighed. She had admitted way to much on the Tristan front and wasn't about to admit anymore but she realized that she was going to have to hurt Dean or he'd just keep coming back. "I don't love you."

Dean stopped moving behind her and felt like a weight had been dropped on his chest. "What?"

Rory however felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. "I don't love you. I don't know if I ever did."

"Because of Tristan?" he snapped angrily

Rory shook her head furiously. "No because of you!"

"Rory."

"This has nothing to do with Tristan! This is about you. You don't even know him and you have done nothing for the last year and a half but bad mouth him. So you two got into a fight at that dance. So what! He wasn't mad at you. He was mad at me! The one in the market, also mad at me! He made my life hell! Not yours! How dare you wish he was miserable! You have a family that loves you! A little sister who adores you, a mother and a father who would do anything for you. Do you know who Tristan has? No one! He spent Christmas alone! Thanksgiving alone! New Years alone! Guess you got your wish! He's miserable! Now get out!" she yelled before heading upstairs

AN: sorry this took forever I'm suffering from some writer's block... hope you enjoy it...


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Emily and Richard watched Rory's behavior towards Dean in shock. On one hand they were excited that she seemed to be ending things with Dean. On the other they couldn't believe she was being so rude to Dean. It was true that they didn't care for the boy one bit but they still couldn't believe that Rory was capable of being so cruel. They watched Lorelai say something to Dean and then dart up the stairs after Rory. Dean walked back into the dining room and sat back down uncomfortably. No one said a word the entire time.

xxxxxx

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore you open this door right now!" Lorelai yelled through Rory's bedroom door

The door flung open. "What!" she snapped

"What did you just do?"

"I'm sorry. Did you hear him?"

"Yes. I heard him begging you to love him." Lorelai snapped

Rory shook her head. "I don't." she snapped back

"Because of Tristan?" Lorelai asked

"No!" Rory yelled. "Because of Dean! He's obsessive and possessive and unnecessarily cruel to people he doesn't know..."

"And we're still not talking about Tristan?" Lorelai asked "Because hun, it kind of seems like we are."

Rory threw her hands up in the air. "Ok fine. Maybe we are. I don't know. All I know is that I haven't even liked let alone loved the Dean I've known for the last five months, probably even longer."

Lorelai looked at her in disbelief. "What?"

"Please just drive Dean home and come pick me up in the morning. We can talk about it then. I promise we'll have a real talk and I'll explain tonight. Just please get him out of here before I decide hurting myself is more important than hurting Dean. Because that's what I've been doing and I can't do it any longer." she said her eyes filling with tears

Lorelai sighed. "Ok sweets. I'll be back for you around 9. Please be up and ready I don't want to deal with Emily any longer than I have to." she said before walking out the room and shutting the door behind her. She paused by the door long enough to hear Rory sink to the floor on the other side of it and start bawling.

xxxxxx

Lorelai walked back down the stairs and into the dining room where Dean, Emily and Richard were waiting for her in complete silence. "Well?" Richard asked breaking the silence

Lorelai sighed. "Rory's spending the night here and I'll pick her up at 9. I'm going to take Dean home. But I need you both to promise me that you won't try to talk to her."

"I don't think that I can do..." Emily started

"Mom look, if you talk to her I can't guarantee she's not going to bite your head off. I'm asking you not to talk to her more for your piece of mind then her's. She's upset and she's hurting and she just wants to be left alone."

Emily nodded. "Fine."

"Dad?"

Richard nodded. "Of course."

"Great." Lorelai said sighing and then turned to Dean. "Come on kiddo. Let's go."

Dean wordlessly followed Lorelai out the door and into the car. Every time he thought about opening his mouth he shut it again. When Lorelai finally pulled up to his house he moved to get out but was stopped by her voice.

"Dean."

"Yeah?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but she should have done this months ago. Before you got any deeper. This isn't because of you. This is all on her. I just wanted you to know that." she said softly before letting him get out of the car.

Dean nodded at her. "Thanks for the ride." he said before shutting the door.

Lorelai sighed before putting the jeep back in drive and driving home.

xxxxxx

After breaking up with Dean and crying her eyes out on the floor she felt restless. She couldn't believe the way she had spoken to her grandparents but she wasn't sorry for a single thing she had said. She had meant them all. They had no right to belittle Tristan the way they had and Dean had no right to wish him miserable. Rory looked up at the door when a knock sounded above her. Rory looked at her watch. It was late. Later than she had thought. She reached up and opened the door. She looked up at Emily sighing. "Come in." she said softly

Emily walked in slowly. She knew she had told Lorelai that she wouldn't say anything to Rory but she couldn't help it. "I wanted to talk to you."

Rory sighed. "Grandma could we please not do this tonight..."

"You know I don't mind you being here, but you will never speak to me the way you did tonight again. And you will never defend Tristan DuGrey to me. You say he's unhappy, that's good, he should be. And you would do good to put him out of your mind as well. He's not nearly good enough for you. He's a juvenile delinquent for goodness sake Rory!"

"Grandma..." Rory snapped angrily

"You had no right..."

"You had no right!" Rory snapped

Emily looked at her angrily. "Excuse me?"

"You don't even know him."

"Rory..."

"You don't know what he's been through. You don't know how his parents treat him..."

"Lorelai Leigh.."

Rory shook her head "No I'm wrong maybe you do. Because it's the same way you treat Mom." she yelled. "Like she's an afterthought until you want to be in complete control of her life. You make her hate you. You make her want to rebel against you and it's sad because she doesn't even live with you anymore and she's still doing it. That's all Hartford society is about isn't it. Making your children as miserable as possible without having to actually exert any energy." she said angrily. "No wonder he pulled half the crap he pulled. Please leave me alone."

Emily stared at her in shock. Lorelai had warned her. She simply turned around and listened as Rory slammed the door shut behind her.

xxxxxx

Rory didn't know what had possessed her when she shimmied down the drain pipe outside her window. She just knew that she had to get out of the house. She felt repressed and she was already restless so she just climbed down. She wasn't even sure of where her feet were taking her until she stopped walking and looked up at Chilton. She slipped past the gate, her feet acting on auto pilot and when she stopped walking she realized that she was standing in front of the bench she had begun to think of as theirs. She sat down at it, immediately flooded by memories of Tristan. A smile danced across her lips, remembering the smile on his face when she had reassured him that her crying fit had nothing to do with the kiss that they had shared. She laughed loudly when she remembered the way his face twitched, his voice requesting a repeat performance.

It was weird how much of that day she remembered considering she had spent the majority of it a nervous wreck. But the memory was still strong, vivid in her mind. She remembered how nervous he was, flinching when her hand almost brushed up against his own, casting nervous glances at her when Louise mentioned being the lady in waiting so that she could have sex with Tristan, and refusing to be the king to her queen. She hadn't expected him to be nervous. She knew she would be but she had never expected it of him. Granted she knew better than to honestly think he would be running around school bragging about finally breaking through the outer shell of the Chilton Mary. Nor had she expected the almost sad look on his face when they were talking about how un-meaningful the kiss really was.

She hadn't been lying to him when she told him that the kiss was nice. It was. It was very nice. Nice enough that when she spoke to Paris a few days later she couldn't help it when her heart and stomach flipped, upset, jealously, when Paris told her that he had kissed her good night. She of course ignored it immediately and never told anyone about it. It was bad enough that she had told Lorelai about the kiss at the party she wasn't about to tell her that Tristan kissing Paris had affected her in any way whatsoever. Suddenly anxious to get away from the memories of that day she hurriedly moved from the bench.

Her feet once again acting on auto pilot she wasn't surprised when she ended up towards the front of the main building. Standing in front of the building staring into the fountain her eyes clouded over with tears as the memory of Dean showing up replayed over in her head.

She hadn't meant it. She knew that when she said it. She had never hated him. He made her nervous and anxious but she had never felt hate for him Even she had to admit that he was charming and his brand of charm was hard to hate, or ignore.

She had wanted to go to PJ Harvey with him. She loved PJ Harvey and probably would have gone if her friendship with Paris hadn't been up for grabs. She could have overlooked the fact that he wanted the concert to be date and just gone, reassuring him and herself that they were only friends the whole time. But she knew what it would do to her and Paris' semi-truce. And she had been right. The mere mention of the tickets and what their initial purpose had been seemed to be enough for Paris to end their truce.

Her heart pinched tightly, her eyes brimmed with tears when she remembered him snatching her books away. Tears ran down her face when she saw the look on his face when she had called him pathetic. Another thing that she had said that she had never meant and wished she could take back. She choked back a sob when she remembered saying something very similar to him in front of Patty's, a place she still couldn't go near the second she saw the piano. She sank to the ground leaning up against the wall imagining the look on his face when she told Dean that she loved him and what it must have looked like. She pulled her kneed up flush with the rest of her body. She simply stopped holding back the tears that had been threatening to plummet down from her eyes and cried for the loss of a boy she had never really opened herself up to but couldn't seem to move past.

xxxxxx

Nine o'clock may have come fast for Richard and Emily but not fast enough for Lorelai. When the clock ticked to five after nine and Rory still hadn't come outside she was the farthest thing from happy. She sighed angrily and got out the car. Ringing the doorbell, she was surprised when it opened almost immediately, Emily Gilmore behind it. "Mom." she said startled

Emily Gilmore looked worried and upset and she was sure Lorelai had picked up on it right away. "We were just about to call you." she said frantically ushering her inside quickly

Lorelai looked at her mother and father nervously. "Mom... Dad... what is it?"

"We can't find Rory." Emily rushed out

Lorelai looked at her blankly for a moment before the words replayed through her head until they made sense. "What do you mean you can't find Rory?!" she snapped worriedly

Emily shook her head fiercely. "I went in a few minutes ago to make sure she was up and ready to go and she wasn't there. The bed hasn't been slept in and the balcony door was open..."

Lorelai's jaw dropped. "Are you telling me that Rory, my Rory, my level-headed think first before you leap Rory snuck off in the middle of the night?" she yelled loudly

Richard sighed, "Lorelai is the yelling really all that necessary?"

Lorelai looked at him apologetically before whipping back around to face Emily angrily. "What did you do?"

"What?" Emily asked defensively

Lorelai shook her head. "Don't you what me. When I left here last night she was upset, crying her eyes out actually, but she was still rational. What did you do? Did you talk to her? Tell me you didn't go in there and talk to her mother?!"

Emily looked guiltily at the floor. "I just though she should know that she couldn't speak to us that way again."

Lorelai shook her head angrily, began gesturing wildly and pacing frantically. "No. You told me. You promised me you wouldn't talk to her. You said more than that. You had to have. Rory wouldn't have just taken off unless you really upset her." Lorelai snapped. Then realization set in, obvious in her facial expressions. "You mentioned Tristan didn't you!"

Emily huffed. "I hardly could have known she'd react this way..."

"Did you not see her at dinner last night? Dean insulted him and she broke up with him!" Lorelai said incredulously

"Lorelai..." Richard said tiredly

"I have to find her." Lorelai said grabbing up her purse

"I already put in calls to her Chilton friends." Emily called after Lorelai.

xxxxxx

"I hardly doubt that we'll hear anything but I'll keep my ears and my eyes open Emily. And I'll let you know if I do." Paris heard her mother say into the phone

Her ears perked up when she head her mother mention Emily. "What's going on?" Paris asked once she had hung up the phone

Paris' mom shrugged. "The Gilmore's grand daughter ran off apparently." she said dismissively

Pairs' eyes widened. She knew that Rory had been circling the drain the last couple of days ever since Duncan came back but she hadn't expected her to slide down it so soon. "What do you mean Rory ran off?"

She sighed. "Honey I don't know. They had an argument about something over there last night and she was upset. When her mother came to get her this morning she was gone."

Paris nodded. "Oh."

"Emily just wanted to know if we'd seen or heard anything. I guess they're trying to find her." she said turning around to look at her daughter but found the room empty. "But I guess you don't care." she said to herself

xxxxxx

Paris sighed. She looked at Rory sadly. If she had ever hated Rory for some Tristan related reason, all of it faded away with one look at Rory. She was lying on a bench in the quad, curled up in a ball shivering. She quickly walked back to the car, grabbing the extra jacket and the coffee she had brought for her and headed back towards her. She didn't say anything at first. She just simply looked at her. She had tear stained cheeks and Paris was almost certain that her eyes were close to being swollen shut from crying. She frowned when she heard Rory whimper through chattering teeth. "Rory." she said softly but firmly trying not to startle her but trying to wake her at the same time. She watched Rory closely while she pried her eyes open and was rewarded with the sight of bloodshot blue eyes realizing that it was daytime.

"Paris?" she said hoarsely

Paris nodded. "How did I know I'd find you here Gilmore?" she asked handing Rory the jacket and then the coffee

She took both eagerly. "What... what are you doing here?"

"You're kidding right?" Paris scoffed. "You're lucky it's me and not the National Guard. You scared the hell out of your grandmother."

Rory groaned and looked down at Paris' watch. "Please tell me that it's not really nine thirty and that you set your watch an hour ahead so you could sneak out a party early last night and then forgot to set it back."

Paris shook her head. "Sorry. I can't do that."

Rory sighed and pulled the jacket tighter around her. "You know this is where I convinced Tristan to go out with you." she said laughing slightly before taking a sip of her coffee

"What?" Paris asked loudly

Rory shrugged. "We were sitting here talking and he told me that he was swearing off girls for a while." she said pausing while Paris laughed, "I know. That was my reaction exactly. Anyway I told him that instead of swearing off girls he should pick one with substance. Someone who's smart, ambitious, driven. And I don't know... he seemed up for it and I knew you liked him, so I suggested you."

Paris shook her head tiredly. "Of course he seemed up for it you moron. He was hoping you were talking about yourself. The only reason he followed through and asked me if because you asked him to."

Rory shook her head nervously. "No... no.. he kissed you..."

"Goodnight. He kissed me goodnight. I know I told you it was this amazing kiss and it was to me. I had wanted to kiss Tristan for so long he could have kissed my hand and it would have been amazing, but that's all it was. A goodnight kiss. And he probably did it just because he was so ecstatic the night was finally over."

Rory sighed and pointed across the quad. "And over there... in front of the fountain..."

"Yeah?" Paris prodded happy that Rory was finally talking about this. She was tired of seeing Rory so broken.

"Over there is where I told him he pathetic." she said tears stinging her eyes

"Ror..."

"He stole my books. He was holding them ransom until I agreed to go to the concert with him." she said furiously wiping tears from her face, "And I told him to keep them, that he was pathetic. And then Dean showed up..."

"I heard about that. It was all Louise could talk about for a week that summer, Farmer Boy showing up and the two of you having some heart swelling romantic moment that..."

"That crushed Tristan. Go ahead you can say. He was standing there, watching, listening. I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head when I told Dean that Tristan wasn't my boyfriend and that I hated him. I head him throw my books to the ground..."

Paris shook her head. "Rory it's not your fault that you wanted to be with Dean instead..."

Rory shook her head fiercely. "I didn't..."

"Are you saying you wanted to be with Tristan instead?" Paris asked shocked that Rory was finally admitting that she had feelings for Tristan

"NO... not at all. I'm just saying I didn't want to be with Dean. I just wanted everything to go back to normal again."

Paris nodded silently. Rory had stopped crying and they both sat in silence until Rory broke it by laughing. "What?"

Rory shook her head. "Nothing. It's not even funny. I just don't remember how I got over here. Last night I remember sitting down by the fountain and crying and I haven't the slightest idea how I got here."

Paris sighed. "I guess you moved to a place where you had a happier memory on auto pilot."

Rory shrugged. "Can you drive me back to my grandparents so my mom kill me please?"

Paris nodded laughing. "Of course. I mean if you're dead I'm a shoo in for valedictorian."

Rory laughed as well and followed her to the car. The drove in silence and they were in front of the Gilmore home almost instantly considering Chilton was barely five minutes away. Rory was obviously stalling and she was grateful that Paris hadn't made her get out and was letting her. She sighed before taking a deep breath. "He's in military school in North Carolina. I don't know which one. I don't know for how long. All I know is that he's in military school in North Carolina."

Paris let the information sink in. If she knew him the saw she thought she knew him she knew he was miserable. "Oh." she said softly

Rory nodded. "And I know he spent Christmas and New Years alone. Maybe even Thanksgiving."

Paris nodded. She believed that. The DuGrey's never had a real use for Tristan, except for Janlen and he was always so ill lately even he didn't have time. "Thank you for telling me." she said genuinely

Rory nodded. "I figured I should probably tell someone." she said slowly, "and I figured you were the least likely to run your mouth and just keep it to yourself." she added before getting out of the car and walking into the house.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"What were you thinking Rory!" Emily yelled loudly the second Rory stepped through the front door

Rory sighed. "I needed some air." she replied looking helplessly at Lorelai

Lorelai took one look at Rory and her blood shot eyes and took pity on her. "Mom. I'll take care of this. Thank you for letting her stay last night." she said quickly before ushering them both out of the Gilmore mansion before Emily could stop them. As soon as they were both in the jeep she looked at Rory in shock. "You needed air?!" she said with a hint of pride in her voice

Rory nodded mutely and then as if knowing it wasn't enough she sighed and spoke. "She said the most awful things about him." Rory said softly

Lorelai looked confused for a brief moment before nodding, knowing that she had already known who they were talking about. "Tristan." she said plainly

Rory nodded and remained silent for a long minute. "He reminds me of you, you know." she said as Lorelai pulled out of the driveway. "His parents treat him like Grandma and Grandpa treat you. He was miserable when he left. He spent Christmas alone. I can't even imagine what it would be like celebrating Arbor Day without you let alone Christmas. And the sad thing is, he's probably used to it."

Lorelai nodded. "He probably is." she said sadly

"And Grandma was standing there telling me how horrible he was and insulting him and I just had to get out..."

"So you shimmied down the drainpipe?"

Rory nodded.

Lorelai smiled. "Guess I probably shouldn't have told you all the ways to escape the house huh?"

Rory remained silent for a long time. Lorelai pretty much thought that conversation Rory had promised her was over after almost twenty silent minutes, so she was surprised when Rory spoke again.

"I don't know what's wrong with me Mom." she said as tears rolled down her face

Lorelai sighed sadly as the tears dropped from Rory's eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked soothingly

"We weren't friends. We weren't together. I didn't even like him. And I still feel like..."

"Like what?"

"Like... like a part of me is missing." she said wiping tears off her face. She knew Lorelai was about to say something and opened her mouth to stop her. "It's like it doesn't even feel right to be at Chilton without him. Like it's wrong to walk down the hall and not have him waiting at my locker to trade insults, or open it when it's stuck." she added frowning. "Everywhere I go there I'm reminded of him. There's this bench in one of the courtyards at Chilton that I've started spending most of my free time at. I don't know why but I have. We sat at it last year and decided to be friends after the kiss at Madelyn's party. I know it reminds me of him, but when I sit there all I seem to want to do is cry... and I hate it but I can't help going there. It's like...it's the only place at that school where I feel..." she said pausing to choke back a sob. "whole."

Lorelai pulled over the second Rory started sobbing. "Oh hun. It's ok. It's all going to be ok..." she said soothingly while rubbing her back gently

"What's wrong with me?" she demanded crying

Lorelai sighed sadly. "Oh hun. It sounds like you miss him."

Rory shook her head quickly and managed a strangled cry of "Why?"

Lorelai laughed lightly. "Sweetheart."

"What?"

"You like him." Lorelai said softly

Rory shook her head. "No."

"Rory."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because... because I can't." she said putting an end to the conversation.

xxxxxx

Lorelai watched sadly as Rory sobbed behind her bedroom door. She was about to try and talk to her again when the phone rang. Sighing she walked over and picked up the phone. "Hello."

"Lorelai it's your mother."

"What can I do for you?" she said annoyed

Emily sighed and ignored the annoyance in her daughter's voice. "We're having a party this Friday..."

"And we're excused from Friday Night Dinner?" Lorelai added hopefully

Emily rolled her eyes. "Absolutely not. I just wanted to tell you so that Rory would have advance notice to tone down her attitude. I won't have her flitting around being rude to my guests."

Lorelai sighed. "Check, one attitude-less Rory. Anything else?"

"Dress appropriately."

"So matching shirts covered in rhinestone penises?" Lorelai quipped

"Be on time." Emily snapped before hanging up

xxxxxx

Lorelai walked back into Rory's room with a pint of Ben and Jerry's. She took in Rory's appearance and sighed sadly at the bloodshot eyes that were starting to be a permanent fixture on her daughter. "Ready to tell me the rest." she asked while handing over a spoon

Rory sighed. "What's left?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Where is he?"

Rory frowned. "Military school. North Carolina. And I'm the only one that he told. No one else knows. Well besides Paris. I just told her this morning."

Lorelai nodded. "I imagine military school is hard for someone like Tristan."

Rory fixed her mother with a glare. "What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped

Lorelai sighed. "I meant someone who's from Hartford society. Someone who's used to getting what he wants. I wasn't saying anything bad about Tristan."

Rory took a bite of ice cream. "Oh." she said softly

Lorelai sat on Rory's bed, the two of them silently eating ice cream for a long while when suddenly she spoke. "So... I have an idea."

"What's that?" Rory asked curiously

"Why don't you just call him? You can talk to him and maybe then you'll feel better."

Rory shrugged. "There's at least four military schools in North Carolina and I have no clue which one he's at." Rory said informing Lorelai

"So I guess you thought of that already?"

"And I entertained the idea for about an hour until I found out there were so many military schools there."

Lorelai sighed "Just shoot my idea down then."

xxxxxx

Rory walked into Chilton apprehensively Monday morning. People were staring at her closely and she had no idea why. Quickly finding Paris she wasted no time finding out. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

Paris sighed. "Your grandmother called a lot of people looking for you Saturday morning. They all know you ran away."

Rory groaned and walked towards her locker, Paris following close behind. "I didn't run away."

"You know that. And I know that. But they don't." Paris said knowingly

Rory sighed. "There's one thing that's been bothering me."

"What's that?" Paris asked curiously

"How did you know where to find me?"

Paris shrugged. "I figured that you were still in Hartford, and when my mom said you were fighting with your grandparents I assumed it was the same thing you were fighting about with everyone else. Logically that assumption made no sense, but it was a heat of the moment thing. I mean for all I knew you had been fighting about Dean, but my brain naturally thought of..." Paris said letting Rory's brain fill in the name. "And I figured you wouldn't have gone to the Du... his house so that left Chilton. Finding you on the bench was a complete fluke."

Rory nodded. "Why did you come looking for me?"

Paris shrugged again. "I didn't think anyone would think to look for you there."

"Really?"

"Well, there's also the fact that we're kind of sort of friends and I was sort of worried about you. I mean I work better with competition. Without you around there would be none..."

"Thank you." Rory said, "I think some where in there you admitted to liking me a little."

Paris frowned. "Yeah well don't spread it around. People will think I've gone soft." she said before walking away

Rory simply laughed before heading off to her own class.

xxxxxx

The week flew by and except for the occasional whispered rumor people pretty much left Rory alone. Lorelai had broke down two days ago and told Rory about Emily's party and Rory was dreading it. She was sure it was going to be full of people who knew that only a week ago she had tried to run away from home. Logically she knew she hadn't but from the consensus of what was going around Chilton that was what her grandmother had implied to everyone she called.

From the moment Rory got into the Jeep Lorelai knew something was wrong. She had let Rory get away with not talking to her about Tristan since that day she had spilled her guts but only because it appeared that Rory was better. She had assumed that Rory had meant it when she promised not to do this quiet thing anymore now that she hadn't been holding it all in. But here was her daughter silently contemplating something in the jeep. "What's up kiddo?"

Rory shook her head. "Nothing."

"Rory." Lorelai said sternly, "Now we talked about this. You promised this wouldn't happen again."

Rory sighed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"So... what's up kiddo?" Lorelai asked again

"What if they're all talking about me?" Rory asked softly

Lorelai frowned. "Oh hun, you've had Chilton talking about you for months, why are you concerned with the elder Hartford snobs talking about you?"

"But these are adults. They're all going to be looking at me like I'm pathetic."

Lorelai sighed. "Hun, you wouldn't be Lorelai Gilmore if they weren't all talking about you. It's like their past time."

xxxxxx

Lorelai and Rory pulled up the house and lingered in the car, neither one wanting to get out and go inside the party. "We'll stay for an hour. Hour and half tops." Rory said strongly

Lorelai nodded. "Exactly."

"What if Grandma won't let us leave?" Rory asked worriedly

Lorelai laughed. "Well you've already proved capable of shimming down the drain pipe."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Funny." she snapped before getting out of the jeep

Lorelai sighed and quickly followed. "Hey! I thought it was." she said once she met Rory at the door

"Just ring the bell." Rory said frowning

Lorelai frowned. "Why should I have to ring the bell?"

"She's your mother."

"She's your grandmother."

"And?"

"Well I'm just pointing out that you could very well have as much responsibility to ring the bell as I do." Lorelai pointed out

Both were surprised when a finger reached out and pushed the bell for them. Rory turned around and saw Paris. "Hey."

"Just thought I'd end the debate over who had to push the bell." Paris said without enthusiasm

Rory looked at her confused. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a party. My mother doesn't miss a party now that she got rid of my dad. Which of course means I have to attend." she said bitterly

Rory nodded. "But then where's your mom?"

"She's already here. I was running late."

Rory opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the door opening and an annoyed Emily Gilmore standing behind it.

"You're late." Emily snapped at Lorelai

"Only by like five minutes."

"Late is late." Emily snapped and then noticed Paris. "Paris, how lovely to see you. Come in dear. You're mother is around here somewhere." she said politely

Paris nodded. "I'll see you later Rory?"

"Of course." Rory said quickly aware that her grandmother was staring at her. "Hi Grandma." she said softly

Emily looked at Rory for a long second wordless. "Be on your best behavior tonight. Some of your friends from school are here. You should mingle." she said tightly before walking away

Rory sighed and looked at Lorelai helplessly. "Guess Grandma won't run out of ice tonight." she said softly causing Lorelai to laugh.

xxxxxx

Forty five minutes into the party Rory was bored. Paris had stayed at her side most of the night once they had both discovered that Summer was present, and Lorelai had been descended upon by Emily and her friends.

Paris had taken one look at Rory when they first arrived and knew she didn't want to be there. Paris had made a point not to mention that she had seen the DuGrey's earlier knowing that they were the last people Rory needed to see but when she saw them heading over towards her and Rory, Emily in toe she knew this couldn't end well. "Rory." she hissed quietly

Rory turned towards her confused by her tone. "What?"

"Tristan's parents are coming over with your grandparents."

Rory's eyes widened. "What?" she said shaking her head. "Why?"

Paris shrugged "I don't know."

Rory started frantically looking for Lorelai. "I have to get out of here. I don't want to meet them."

Paris started looking for Lorelai as well but by the time they had found her it was too late. Emily and the DuGrey's were standing there.

Emily smiled warmly at Rory who had managed to catch her mother's attention long enough to send a frantic look her way. "Rory I wanted to introduce you to a few of my friends."

Rory made no attempt to smile politely. "Of course."

"This is Karen and Michael DuGrey. Karen, Michael this is my granddaughter Rory."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Rory." Michael said warmly before looking over at Paris. "It's nice to see you again Paris."

Paris smiled politely. "It's nice to see you as well."

Emily looked at Rory quizzically. "Rory aren't you going to say hello?"

Rory opened her mouth to speak. The words 'It's nice to meet you too' were formed and she had every intention of saying them so she was just as surprised when "How's Tristan?" tumbled from her lips.

Karen looked at Emily crossly for a moment before letting her society face slip back on. "He's very well. I wasn't aware you knew my son."

Rory nodded. "I went to school with him."

"You go to Chilton?" Michael stated "It's a very fine school. Best education you can get in Connecticut, other than Yale of course. Tell me are you following in Richard's footsteps and going to Yale after graduation."

"I'm going to Harvard." Rory said icily

"Oh. Harvard is a fine school as well. I went to Harvard." Michael said boastfully

Rory shrugged. "Maybe I'll rethink it then."

Emily looked over at her grand daughter in outrage. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, what has gotten into you?!" she snapped

"So Tristan likes his new school?" Paris added trying to deflect the attention away from Rory's flippant remarks

"He loves it. Switzerland definitely agrees with him." Karen said smiling

"Huh." Rory scoffed

"What?" Michael asked annoyed

Rory shook her head. "Nothing. It's just I didn't know there was a Switzerland in North Carolina. I guess I need to brush up on my geography." she said rudely. She paused for a moment to enjoy the look of anger on the DuGrey's faces before adding, "Excuse me." just in time for Lorelai to walk up. She looked at her mother for a brief moment before walking away, Paris following behind her.

Lorelai rushed after her shooting her mother a death glare at the nerve to introduce Rory to them after last week, but could faintly hear Emily apologizing for Rory, claiming to not know what had gotten into her.


	19. Chapter 18

ch 18

Lorelai looked at Rory in shock. "I can't believe you just did that!" she snapped.

Paris looked awestruck. "I've never seen anyone talk to Michael DuGrey that way."

Rory shrugged but remained silent.

"You do realize that Emily is never going to let me live this one down don't you?"

Again Rory shrugged.

"Say something!" Lorelai snapped.

Rory took a deep breath before saying anything. "Is she trying to make me hate her?" she snapped pointing back towards the house.

Lorelai was about to answer her when Emily stormed out the front door and over to them. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, you will go right back in there and apologize to Michael DuGrey."

Rory looked at Paris for a moment before Paris went back inside. "Why would you do that? Why would you think that after dinner last week I would want to meet Tristan's parents? Why?" Rory screamed at her grandmother.

"Rory..."

"I hate those people. They treat their son like garbage. They don't have the slightest idea how to be decent people. And you thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to them! Why?!"

"I thought youmight want to..."

"No! You didn't think she might want to anything!" Lorelai snapped. "You did what you always do. Try to ruin things. I had just gotten her back and you had to go and pull this! You pulled this last week when I asked you not to say anything to her and you had to deliberately ignore me! And what happened? She ran away!"

"Lorelai..."

Lorelai looked over at Rory. "Rory get in the car," she said forcefully before turning back to Emily. "Don't expect us here next Friday evening."

"We had an agreement." Emily snapped furiously.

"We never agreed that I would allow you to subject my daughter to your friends and your problems." Lorelai snapped angrily. "You have no right to expect her to civil when you purposely cause her pain."

"She humiliated me at my own party."

"You humiliated her. How do you think she feels right now?! You saw her last week. You saw how she reacted to just the mention of Tristan! You heard her insult his parents at dinner last week Mother, why would you do this? Why would you introduce her to them? Why would you throw them in her face like that?"

Emily opened her mouth but closed it again finding no words.

"That's what I thought. Good night mother." Lorelai snapped before heading off in the same direction Rory had gone.

xxxxxx

Monday came quickly and Rory was sure that thanks to Summer, Chilton would be talking about her and her encounter with the Dugrey's so she was surprised when no one mentioned it. It appeared that someone had been smiling down on her because it seemed that Summer hadn't heard it or about it. She had been expecting Summer, she hadn't been expecting Duncan and Bowman standing at her locker. She moved slowly towards it not sure why she felt so nervous. "Can I help you with something?" she asked when she finally got to her locker.

"Hey Mary." Duncan said snidely.

"Duncan." Rory replied icily

"Tell me something Mary." Bowman began.

"What's that Bowman?" Rory asked annoyed.

"How does it feel knowing you're the reason the Dugrey's sent Tristan to Switzerland?" Bowman finished smiling widely at Rory.

Rory opened her mouth but found herself speechless. She opened her mouth again this time finding words. "Excuse me?" she snapped.

Bowman smiled glad that his attempt to ruffle her had worked. "I remember that night clearly..."

"So do I. You were the moron who thought it would be funny to break into your dad's safe. If anyone's responsible I'd say it was you." she said icily.

"The only reason Tristan went through with it was because he was so pissed off at you." Duncan added in Bowman's defense.  
Rory found herself speechless again.

"Mary's got nothing to say?" Bowman snapped.

"Guess not." Duncan added, "It's a pity. Remember that day she claimed a deer hit her car and she missed that test in Medina's class?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Bowman asked

"Well, if I remember correctly, Mary's sexy when she's all fired up." Duncan said smirking while reaching out slowly as if to touch her.

Later on she would swear that her hand acted on its own volition because she honestly can't remember telling her brain to tell her hand to slap him across the face. In fact, it wasn't until Duncan took a step towards her angrily that she realized she had hit him.

"You bitch." he glared, "Who do you think you are?"

"Someone who'd prefer you not leering at her." came a voice from behind the two boys.

Rory had been too busy thinking about what they had said to notice Max walk up behind them but she had been glad to see him because Duncan looked like he was going to hit her back. She saw Max's hand on Duncan and realized that Max must have been what stopped Duncan from taking more than one step towards her.

Max glared at Duncan and Bowman. "I'd like to see you both in the headmaster's office, wait for me there." he snapped at them.

"For what?" Duncan snapped. "She slapped me!"

"Well, we'll start with harassment and then move on to sexual harassment. Then, we can add on the use of profanity on school grounds. Now move it." When neither made an attempt to move he yelled "Now!!"

Once Duncan and Bowman were gone he turned back to Rory. "Are you alright?" he asked concerned.

Rory nodded. "Am I in trouble?" she asked softly already sure she knew the answer

Max sighed. "Maybe. You did hit him. It's not really up to me. You know that." he said sadly.

Rory frowned. "I'm going to the headmaster's office with you aren't I?" she said tiredly.

Max frowned "I'm afraid so kiddo."

Rory put her books back in her locker. "Great."  
xxxxxx

Paris had been settling into her English class when one of Summer's lackeys burst into the room beaming.

"Who else saw Mary totally bitch slap Duncan?" She asked smiling widely.

"What?!" Paris said loudly.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Duncan, Bowman, and Mary were having some kind of conversation, I was too far away to hear it, but it apparently turned ugly cause she totally slapped him right across the face. Serves him right the little toad."

"Yeah, but she's lucky Mr. Medina stepped in when he did because Duncan looked like he was going to hit her back. He actually took a step toward her with his fists clenched," another girl said.

"Did you hear what they were fighting about?" Paris asked.

"Well... yeah. But I'm surprised at you Gellar, you aren't normally one for gossip."

"Then you should know I'm not kidding around here. What were they talking about?"

The girl rolled her eyes." What do you think? What else does Mary fight about? I'll give you one guess."

"Tristan." Paris replied

"Wow you really are smart." the girl said boredly

xxxxxx

Max dreaded the call he had to make. He had assured Headmaster Charleston that he'd handle Rory when something requiring his attention had came up. Duncan and Bowman's parents had came to pick up their newly suspended sons about five minutes ago and Rory was still sitting in his classroom crying. He sighed sadly when Lorelai answered the phone. "Lorelai, Hi."

"Max?" she asked confused.

"Yeah. Um... listen I need you to come up to the school and take Rory home." he said quickly.

"Why? What happened? Is she ok?" Lorelai demanded.  
"Let's talk about it when you get here, okay?" he said calmly.

"Max!"

"She's physically fine, Lorelai. I'll tell you the rest when you get here." Max said reassuringly.

"I'll be right there." Lorelai said.

When Lorelai showed up no more than fifteen minutes later, Max was sure she broke every speeding law ever written in the books. "Where's Rory?" she asked breathlessly implying that she had been running.

"She's fine. She's in my classroom. Let's talk here first, and then I'll take you to her." He said leading her into the teacher's lounge.

"What's going on Max?"

Max took a deep breath. "I did everything I could to help her, but Rory got herself suspended."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai snapped. "Rory was suspended? For how long?"

"A week. But I'm going to personally ensure she doesn't get behind her on her school work..."

"Max you don't honestly think I care about her school work right now do you? What happened?"

Max sighed. "She hit another student."

"She hit someone?" Lorelai asked shocked.

"She was provoked..."

"Was it Summer?"

Max shook his head. "Duncan Raymonds."

"Duncan? As in a guy?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes. He and Bowman Edwards were also suspended. The two of them for two weeks."

"You said she was provoked?"

Max frowned at tried to push down the blood boiling feeling he had experienced when the altercation occurred. "I walked up behind Mr. Raymonds just as he made a suggestive comment to Rory..."

"Suggestive like sexual?" Lorelai asked rage sparkling in her eyes.  
"Yes. I was about to open my mouth to say something to him when Rory slapped him hard across the face." He said pausing to regain his composure. "He stepped towards her and I grabbed him before he could get to her because I honestly think he was going to hit her back."

"So this jerk sexually harasses my daughter and she gets suspended?"

Max sighed. "Lorelai, Charleston has been overlooking a lot of things when it comes to Rory this year. Screaming matches in the hallway, cutting classes, a physical fight was the last straw. I managed to talk him down from two weeks to one. She got lucky."

Lorelai sighed and laid her head down on the table they had sat down at. "I don't know what to do anymore Max."

"She'll get through this..." Max said softly, "She just needs some time..."

"She's had plenty of time. She's had months. I can't keep watching her suffer." Lorelai said, tears forming in her eyes, "I've done everything I could think of. I even talked to Paris. I think if she could just talk to Tristan..."

"Can she do that?"

"Talk to Tristan?" she asked. When he nodded she shook her head. "Not unless someone finds him."

"Last I heard he was in Switzerland." Max said helpfully.

Lorelai shook her head. "He's in a military school in North Carolina."

"Oh." Max said surprised.

"Yeah. Only problem is she has no idea which one. Apparently there's quite a few there."

Max sighed. "Yeah there is. You really think talking to Tristan will help?"

"I think it's the only thing I haven't tried yet." Lorelai admitted.

Max nodded. "I have a few contacts in the military school system. Let me see what I can dig up."

Lorelai looked at him like a he was a bottle of water and she was dying of thirst. "You think you can find him?"

Max nodded. "I'll do my best. I told you I'd do anything to help her. You know how much Rory means to me Lorelai."  
Lorelai nodded. "Thank you Max." she said before throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

xxxxxx

By the time Thursday rolled around, Lorelai thought Rory couldn't possibly contain any more tears. She had cried herself to sleep Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. It was breaking Lorelai's heart to see Rory like this. She couldn't get Rory to talk to her about what had happened in that hallway, all Rory kept telling her was that Tristan being sent away was her fault. And no matter how many times Lorelai assured her that she was wrong, that Tristan getting sent away was Tristan's fault, Rory still maintained it was hers.

She had never thought she'd be so glad to see Paris Gellar Thursday evening. She had pulled her aside the second she walked in the door and told her that Rory was blaming herself, and Paris nodded at the information even though she was confused as to why anything could have been Rory's fault. After she assured Lorelai that she'd take care of it, she handed Rory's books and assignments to Lorelai she left with the promise of being back the next day to study for a Calculus test.

Lorelai had sat in the living room trying to block out everything. It must have worked cause she didn't even hear the phone ring until it was too late and the answering machine had picked up. _Lorelai, It__'__s Max. So listen, I have that number we talked about. Give me a call.  
_  
Lorelai immediately dialed Max back, who handed over the number without hesitation. Lorelai scribbled it down and thanked him profusely before hanging up. She smiled widely, grabbed up Rory's assignments, and walked towards Rory's room. Taking a deep breath she opened the door. "Hey kiddo." she said softly.

Rory looked up from her book. "Hey."

Lorelai walked over and sat on Rory's bed. "Okay…so Paris stopped by with some of your school work. She said she'd be back tomorrow to study for a calculus test."

"Okay."

"And there's one other thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"Mom..." Rory said trying to cut her off.

"This should get you some answers," she said handing Rory a piece of paper.

Rory looked at the paper for a long moment before finally realizing what the scrap of paper said. She let out a breath she wasn't aware she had sucked in. "Is this..."  
"A number to reach Tristan at?" she asked smiling. "Why yes, I do believe it is."


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

She didn't even bother asking how her mother had gotten the number. She found that it didn't matter. The fact was that Lorelai had gotten her a number to reach Tristan and all of a sudden Rory wasn't so sure she could call him. Rory stared at the number for hours after Lorelai had left the room before deciding to call it. She dialed the first six numbers but when it came to the last four she couldn't make herself dial them. After seven failed attempts she sat the paper on her desk and went to sleep.

xxxxxx

When Paris showed up Friday night she immediately went straight into Rory's room. Looking at Rory did weird things to her brain she concluded because she had never felt so worried for a person. "Get up!"

"Paris..."

"I don't want to hear it. You did what you did and it's over now. You and I both know he's not going to blame you for whatever it is those two morons accused you of. Now get up and get in the shower. You look like hell."

"Paris seriously..."

"Seriously Gilmore get up and get in the shower. When you get up I'm quizzing you for the Calculus test we have Monday, which coincidentally is the same day you get to go back to school." Paris barked.

Rory not wanting to cross Paris, simply got up and did as she was told.

Paris was alone in Rory's room for five minutes before she noticed the scrap of paper on Rory's desk. She picked it up and looked at it closely before darting out of the room with it. "Lorelai…" she said when she found her.

"Yeah?"

"Is this a current number?" she asked waving Tristan's number in the air.

Lorelai nodded. "Yes."

"Has she called him?"

"No." Lorelai said shaking her head.

"Why the hell not?"  
"I think she's scared."

Paris sighed. "She shouldn't be," she said before turning and heading back into Rory's room. She told herself she wasn't going to call him so she was surprised when she found herself pulling out her cell phone and making quick work of the ten digits. She waited for him to answer and almost hung up several times knowing that Rory would be back any minute now. She had pulled the phone away from her ear to do just that when she heard it. "Hello?" said a voice she wasn't sure she'd hear again.

She released a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Tristan." she said calmly.

xxxxxx

Tristan pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it for a second before replacing it. "Paris?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"How did you find me?" he asked shocked with confusion evident in his voice.

"Lorelai."

Tristan scrunched his face up, more confused than before. "Lorelai? Rory's mom?"

Paris smiled at his confusion. "Yeah. She managed to track you down somehow."

If Tristan had thought he was surprised before he didn't know what he was now. "What?" he stammered out "Why?"

Paris sighed. _'__This is it.__'_ she thought. _'__This is the moment where I__'__m about to betray my best friend.__'_ The realization that Rory might not immediately appreciate her interference wasn't enough to stop her though. She knew Lorelai had tracked him down for the same reason she had called him. Someone had to help Rory before she got any worse. "Because of Rory." Paris rushed out before her mind told her to stop.

That was it. Tristan knew that at that moment he could have been knocked over with a feather. He smiled at the thought of Rory but frowned immediately when the thought that something had happened occurred to him. "What about Rory? Is she ok? What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

Paris smiled. "Guess it's safe to say you still have a thing for Gilmore..."

"Paris!" Tristan snapped "Is Rory ok?"

Paris sighed. She knew she still had a chance to back out. She could say yes and lie to him. Tell him it was a mistake that she shouldn't have called him. But she was worried about Rory . Ever since the scene with his parents at the Gilmore's party, Rory had been even more withdrawn than usual. But in all honestly, she wasn't sure what telling Tristan would accomplish. "She's going to kill me for talking to you. I just wanted to hear your voice and make sure you were ok," she said trying to back out of talking about Rory.

Tristan groaned. "I'm fine. Military school sucks. What's wrong with Rory?" he said impatiently. He knew it couldn't be good if Paris was trying to prolong it.

Paris bit her lip in thought. "It's just..." she said trying to figure out what she was going to say "She's a mess."

"What's wrong?" Tristan asked worriedly.

"She's just a mess." Paris repeated.

"You said that already." Tristan pointed out.

Paris sighed. "And I shouldn't have said that."

Tristan was growing impatient. "Paris!" he snapped.

"Her grades slipped before Christmas..."

"Slipped? How bad?" Tristan asked concerned considering he knew how important her grades were to her.

"Not enough to make a difference but enough to be noticed." Paris said, "She rarely pays attention in class anymore. Summer's made her a personal punching bag vocally."

Tristan looked down for a moment taking a deep breath. He was sure he was the reason for that. "Why?"

Paris rolled her eyes. "Because you talked to Rory before you left. And Rory viewed that conversation as personal and won't share it."

"That's because it was personal." Tristan said calmly, "Has she told you what I said?"

Paris shook her head. "Just that you were in Military School in North Carolina."

Tristan nodded. "Oh." He hadn't been expecting the reaction she had to him leaving and he hadn't thought she would share her reaction with anyone and it made him smile a little that he was right about her. "And how are her grades now?"

"Fine." Paris said.

"Ok…then what else aren't you telling me, because I hardly think you can qualify that as a mess."

"She called Summer a brainless slut."

"Summer is a brainless slut." Tristan pointed out.

"That's not the point. The point is that she called her a slut. Rory Gilmore, teddy bear from Grandma called someone a slut, in public, in front a teacher." she said deliberately.

"Ok, so it's definitely out of character..."

"She would barely speak to Lorelai for months. And when she would, it was mean or scathing."

Tristan frowned. "Now that doesn't sound like Mary at all."

"Her eyes get misty when someone calls her Mary." Paris said, knowing now that there was no going back, that she had crossed the line marking the point of no return. She was going to tell him everything she knew.

Tristan paused. "She's never liked the nickname..."

"Lorelai said she won't go near a piano. Now I don't know the significance of that but it must mean something since Lorelai brought it up..."

Tristan swallowed hard. That night was burned into his memory. He could still remember how good it felt kissing her even if it was only for a few seconds. "I do." he said softly.

Paris nodded. "I figured you would."

Tristan felt his mood deflating the more Paris talked. He hated that Rory was upset because of him. "Is that it?" he asked while thinking _'__Please let that be it. I don__'__t want to be the cause of her pain.__'_

Paris took a deep breath. "She's cut classes. She dumped Dean and ran away from her grandparents and..."

"Wait!" he interrupted, "What do you mean she ran away?"

"She stayed over at her grandparents after dinner one night; and in the middle of the night, she climbed down the drain pipe and ran away."

"Who found her?"

"I did." Paris said "I didn't realize she was spiraling so fast. This was before I knew anything about where you were. I just knew she was spiraling. I can't believe I didn't notice how badly though."  
Tristan sighed sadly. "Where was she?"

"Chilton. I found her at Chilton lying on a bench sobbing and shivering in her sleep the next morning."

Tristan took a deep breath covering his mouth with his hand. "Was she ok?"

"Yeah."

"What else aren't you telling me Paris?"

"She cries at the drop of a hat. The teachers are watching her like a hawk, waiting for her to snap at someone, and dart out of the room crying. People calling her Mary is doing more damage than the fighting with Summer is. She zones out staring at her locker. I caught her standing in front of yours."

Tristan frowned. "She was standing at my locker?" The last time Rory had stood at his locker, she had begged him not to tell Dean about the kiss. He remembered her telling him it meant nothing.

"Tracing the numbers." Paris added, "She doesn't eat lunch at school anymore. She just picks at it and stares at your old table."

Tristan opened his mouth to talk but found no words. "I don't know what to say."

"She's not adjusting to your absence very well." Paris pointed out immediately feeling stupid. Of course he knew that by now.

"Has she said anything else about me to you?"

Paris nodded. "Yeah. But I'm not telling you what. It's between me and her. And honestly I've already told you way to much to begin with."

"Paris..."

"She just misses you." Paris said softly.

Tristan felt tears prickling his eyes. Blinking them away rapidly, he frowned at their presence. "I miss her too." he choked out after a while.

Paris nodded. She knew that he would. "She cares about you. She always has."

Tristan shook his head. "She sure had a funny way of showing it."

"She had a boyfriend."  
"Not for a while she didn't." he said, his memory flicking back to the night at Madelyn's party.

"She's not happy." Paris said softly.

Tristan sighed not bothering to blink away the new tears. "I can't help that Paris. I'm in North Carolina and she's in Connecticut."

Paris nodded. "I know." she said before hearing the bedroom door open. She looked up and saw Rory walk in. "I have to go." she said quickly.

"Wait Paris!" Tristan snapped.

"I'll call you later," she said before shutting her phone and looking at Rory nervously.

"What's with you?" Rory asked curiously. "Who were you talking to?"

"Nothing. And Louise." Paris said before opening her Calculus book. "Should we get started?"

Rory nodded and sat down and the two of them began quizzing each other for their Calculus test.

xxxxxx

Tristan could kill Paris for ending the conversation like that. He was unsure what to do with his newfound information, but he knew he had to do something. If Rory was really doing as bad as Paris said she was he had to do something. He couldn't bare the thought that she was miserable. It occurred to him that he had completely glazed over Paris telling him that Rory had broken up with Dean. He smiled at the thought, knowing that Dean had never been good enough for her.

He needed more information and it appeared that he'd have to wait for Paris to deliver it. He looked at the clock in his room and realized that it had only been ten minutes since Paris had hung up on him and he had no clue how long it'd be before she called him back. Groaning he realized it was going to be a long day.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Patience had never been his forte. He was the most impatient person he knew. Waiting by the phone was killing him, and if she kept him waiting any longer it would be killing Paris also. He was worried about Rory, no doubt about it but he was still unsure as to why Paris called him. She had to know that there wasn't really anything he could do about Rory. It's not as if he could just call her up and be like "Hey, I heard you really missed me." 

It had been hours since he had spoken to Paris. Checking his watch again, he sighed in frustration and then groaned when he realized what he was doing. Even in North Carolina, he was still letting Rory Gilmore control his every thought. Deciding he was done waiting by the phone, he moved to leave the room only to have the phone ring. "Hello," he answered quickly.

"Hey," Paris responded softly.

Tristan internally jumped for joy while working hard to restrain the urge to yell 'Finally!' in Paris' ear. "What took you so long? And why are you whispering?"

"Because I'm still at Rory's and I don't know how she'd react if she knew I was talking to you. She'd probably kill me." Paris admitted, "In fact, I know she'd kill me."

Tristan smiled. "Why? Would she be jealous?" he asked his voice full of cockiness.

Paris rolled her eyes. "I had hoped that military school would have turned down the cocky attitude some."

Tristan laughed. "Not a chance."

Paris sighed. "Nice to know some things never change."

Tristan nodded. "Yeah it's comforting."

"You and I both know that if Rory knew I was spilling her personal, private information to anyone, especially to you, she'd kill me."

"You're right. She'd be beyond mad if she found out you were telling me anything. Makes me think you might have a death wish."  
Paris sighed. "Or maybe that I just felt that helping Rory was more important then respecting her feelings."

"Speaking of which, I got the impression you weren't telling me everything. That you were actually leaving a lot out."

Paris shook her head and sighed. She looked out across the yard trying to think of ways to steer the conversation away from what he wanted to know, what he didn't need to hear. She had no intention of telling him about Rory's run in with his family, and she had a feeling she'd already given away much more than she should have.

"Paris? Are you still there?" Tristan asked after she'd gone silent for a while.

"Tristan I told you everything you needed to know," she lied quickly.

"I don't believe you," he told her confidently.

"Tristan really..." Paris started but was interrupted by a throat clearing behind her. "Hold on," she said before covering the phone and turning around slowly, the whole time hoping it wouldn't be Rory behind her. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was Lorelai.

"Did I hear you say Tristan?" Lorelai asked curiously. At Paris' nod she added, "You're talking to Tristan?"

"I hope that's ok. I mean I know you gave the number to Rory but I..."

"It's fine, Paris," Lorelai said reassuringly. "How is he?"

Paris smiled appreciatively. "He's fine, I guess. He's worried about Rory now."

Lorelai nodded. "Guess that makes three of us. How much have you told him?"

Paris sighed guiltily. "More than I should have I think."

Lorelai nodded again. "Probably so," she said before turning to go back inside. "Carry on."  
Paris let out a breath she didn't know she was still holding. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Lorelai didn't care what was done and how it was accomplished as long as she got her Rory back. Sighing she uncovered the phone, "Sorry. Lorelai caught me on the phone."

"No problem," Tristan replied easily. "Now tell me what you're keeping to yourself."

Paris sighed. She knew he would keep at her until she broke and told him everything and really it was for the best. Maybe Tristan could find a way to help or at the very least suggest a way. "I shouldn't be telling you this," she said cryptically.

Tristan sighed. "It must be important or you wouldn't be keeping it to yourself."

"It's just... it's more about you than her. And knowing how you feel about her it might hurt... well... you," she said slowly.

Tristan bit his bottom lip worriedly. "It might hurt me?" he asked for clarification.

"Yeah... well... kind of..." Paris said softly. "I know it's been bothering her. And I'm worried you're going to make it worse by verifying it."

"I would never hurt her..."

"Intentionally. I know."

"Ok, you're going to have to tell me what's going on here. Because honestly I have no idea what you're talking about."

"She thinks you being sent away is her fault."

"What?" Tristan said quickly.

"And that you do, too, and that you hate her because of it," Paris rushed out.

"Have you told her how ridiculous that is? I got sent away because I'm an idiot. It wasn't her fault."  
"I told her that but she doesn't believe me. And then Duncan and Bowman had to go an open their big mouths..."

"Duncan and Bowman?"

"I swear it's their fault she's suspended."

"Suspended!"

Paris laughed nervously. "I didn't tell you that?"

"No," Tristan snapped. "Why is Rory suspended?"

"Because she slapped Duncan across the face," Paris said tiredly. Being involved in Rory's life was more exhausting then any class had ever been. "Duncan and Bowman told her it was her fault that you were sent away. That you never would have gone through with the safe prank if you hadn't been so angry at her. Then Duncan made a suggestive comment about her and tried to touch her..."

"He put his hands on her?" Tristan snapped his blood boiling.

Paris shook her head quickly. "No...No he didn't. He didn't get the chance. She slapped him; and when he went to hit her back, Mr. Medina..."

"He hit her?" Tristan demanded his hand clenching into a fist.

"NO.. Tristan you're not listening. Mr. Medina stopped him. He grabbed his hand before Duncan could touch her."

"I will kill him..." Tristan said slowly through clenched teeth.

"From North Carolina?" she asked skeptically.

"No. I'll come there and beat him within an inch of his pathetic little life." Tristan threatened.

"You can't kill him because he didn't touch her." Paris informed.

"I'll kill him for even thinking he had the right to touch her." He growled angrily.  
"Tristan..."

"I have to go," he said suddenly, his desire to break something growing more and more ever second. He needed to be alone with his thoughts.

"But I only told you so you could tell me how to fix..."

"When I think of a way to help Rory, I'll let you know," he reassured her.

"I don't..."

"I have to go, Paris."

Paris sighed in defeat. "Okay."

"Just do what you can to be there for her. Have her back and make sure she's ok," he relented at her worried tone.

Paris nodded. "I'll do what I can. Bye."

"Bye." Tristan said before hanging up.

He was consumed by rage the second he hung up the phone. He headed straight for the punching bag that each room contained to pound his aggression out. He was furious. He was furious with Paris for calling and upsetting his little world he'd created outside of Hartford; furious at Duncan and Bowman for hurting Rory; furious at himself for getting shipped off to North Carolina. But most surprisingly he was furious at Rory. Furious at her for falling apart, for not being strong enough to make it without him, and furious at her for allowing Chilton to see her weak when she knew it was like chumming shark infested waters.

Punching the bag he berated himself for having the nerve to be angry with her. He had spent so much time insinuating himself into every aspect of her life at Chilton. He hadn't realized it had worked at the time but apparently it had.

Punching the bag harder he slipped back into his anger. He was so consumed in the punching bag he didn't even notice his roommate, Sam, walk in.

"You ok?" Same asked concerned.  
Tristan nodded. "I'm dandy." he snapped through gritted teeth.

Sam nodded skeptically. "Oh yeah man, you look it."

Tristan nodded again still pounding into the bag. "Really I'm fine."

"Uh huh."

"There's just some stuff going on back home. I'm needed there but I'm stuck here." he said bitterly.

"Some stuff or someone?"

Tristan answered him by punching the bag even harder and sending him a glare.

"I see. Is she your girlfriend?"

"Not for lack of trying." Tristan grunted out between punches. "And up until a few hours ago, I truly thought she despised me."

"And..."

"Turns out she doesn't."

"Yeah?" Sam asked smiling.

"Yeah. She even kind of likes me." he said before dropping his hands and turning away from the bag.

"Well, that's a good thing, right?"

"She fell apart when I was sent here, and she needs my help," Tristan admitted before turning back to the bag.

"Aww. That's so cute."

Tristan shot him a glare before landing a final blow to the punching bag. Wincing as his fist connected with the bag, he looked down at his bruised bloody hand and sighed tiredly. "Shut up Sam."

"Sorry dude. So what kind of help does she need? Is she in trouble or something?"

Tristan laughed and shook his head. "Up until earlier I didn't even know Mary knew how to get into trouble."

"Mary? I take it that's her name."

Tristan shook his head and sighed again. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

xxxxxx

He'd given it plenty of thought and finally he'd concluded that the only way to help Rory was to get out of North Carolina and back to Connecticut. He'd spent almost an hour agonizing over calling his dad and had finally caved when he realized that if he wanted to come home he couldn't put it off any longer. Now sitting on his bed listening to his father's lecture, he knew exactly why he'd been dreading the call. "I just want to come home for a few days." he repeated angrily.

"No," Michael Dugrey snapped. "I already told you you're not ready to come home."

"I've been doing so well here, Dad. My grades are up, my behavior has changed..." Tristan argued.

"I don't care," he yelled. "I said you're not coming home."

Tristan sighed. "You said that when my grades weren't in the toilet anymore and I learned some respect, you'd let me come home. I've don't understand..."

"What's not to understand? I said no."

"But things have changed!" he yelled into the phone, "I've changed!"

"Evidently not. You're still the same spoiled little boy throwing a temper tantrum because you're not getting your way."

"Dad..." he pleaded.  
"Absolutely not. You're not coming home and that's final," he yelled forcefully before hanging up.

Tristan groaned in frustration and anger as the dial tone rang in his ear. He slammed the phone down, nearly breaking it. He should have known that Michael Dugrey never had any intention of bringing him home until he had graduated, no matter how well he did there.

He remained on his bed solemn, his palm running across his face tiredly. He wanted to help her and he didn't think that a phone call would accomplish it. Sighing, he reached over for the phone again and dialed. The phone rand four times before it was finally answered. "Hey Grandpa. It's Tristan. I need your help. I didn't know who else to call."


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"He's ready to come home, Michael!" Janlen argued.

"No he's not. He's still acting like a spoiled little rich kid..."

"He is a spoiled little rich kid! That's how you raised him!" Janlen yelled.

"He didn't get what he wanted from me so he went behind my back to you."

Janlen sent an icy glare in his son's direction. "That's because you wouldn't listen to him! He's not asking to come home permanently, he just wants a weekend."

"I don't have to listen to him. I'm his father! Not the other way around."

"One of his friends is in trouble and he..."

"And he what? Feels left out?" Michael snapped sarcastically. "I won't bring him home so he can join in on all the fun."

Janlen rolled his eyes. "That's not what he wants!"

Michael shook his head irritated. "You don't know what he wants. You only hear what he wants you to hear. He knows how to manipulate you, Dad! And he takes full advantage of it."

"No!" Janlen bellowed slamming his fist down on the table. "He's not working me! You don't understand!"

"Then explain it to me," he snapped.

"He's genuinely concerned for his friend."

"The one who's in trouble?"

"Yes. The one who's in trouble. He wants to help."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Who's the friend?"

Janlen hesitated. "Is that really important?"

"If I'm going to consider letting him come home to help his "friend," then yes, who it is really is important."

"Rory Gilmore." Janlen mumbled softly. He knew Michael was still steaming over the Gilmore girl's public tantrum that had been directed at him.

"Classic Tristan. It's always about some girl," he said annoyed.  
"Yes well, she's in trouble..."

"Wait..." Michael interrupted.

"What is it? Janlen sniped.

"That's the girl who tried to humiliate me in front of everybody at the Gilmore's party last week."

"Michael..."

"Absolutely not! He's not coming home for her. I could care less about that girl."

"But Tristan cares about her. That's what matters. And according to everyone I know, the Gilmore girl is never like that."

"I don't care." Michael said standing up intending to end the conversation. "Tristan never reveals the whole truth. He always leaves out some key detail; and before you know it, I have to go down to the Hartford Police Department and bail him out again. It's not happening, I already know Bruce Marquis more than I'd care to. He stays where he is."

"Oh shut up! Who cares that you had to get to know the Police Chief. Besides, it isn't going to be like that. I'll take full responsibility..."

"He's using you! I don't see why you can't see that! I'm not bringing him home, even if it is just for a weekend, and not even if you take responsibility for him."

Janlen glared. "Well that's just to damn bad, because if you don't I will!" he snapped standing up and opening the first door.

"You can't do that."

"Watch me," he threatened before shutting the door behind him.

xxxxxx

Tristan sat silently on his bed wringing his hands nervously. Going over his father's head had been risky but he didn't have a choice. His grandfather was his last resort. If Janlen couldn't get him out of here, he'd have to find a way to make a phone call to Rory good enough.

Janlen had been against sending him to North Carolina, that much he knew. But at the time he'd been too ill to help him. But now he was fully recovered and had been eager to help. Especially after he'd told him about Rory.

His eyes lingered back over to the phone, willing it to ring. He hadn't intended to tell Janlen everything that Paris had told him but once he started talking he couldn't stop. Knowing that Rory thought she was responsible for his current predicament was eating at him. The phone rang and he stared at it nervously. He knew this phone call could go either way. He tentatively reached out and answered it. "Hello?"

"You have one weekend," Janlen informed him happily.

Tristan smiled widely as his heart raced. "You got him to agree to it?"

"No," Janlen said softly, "but I decided that I'm overruling him."

"Can you do that?"

Janlen shrugged. "Sure."

"Really?" Tristan said with more hope in his voice than he knew he could muster

"Yeah I'll pull some strings. I'll have you out next weekend. Is that good enough?"

"Are you kidding? It's perfect. Thank you so much." Tristan beamed.

"No problem. Just don't screw this up Tristan. Don't make me regret this."

"I swear I won't."

"And you are in no way to put your hands on Duncan or Bowman, do you understand me?" he said forcefully.

"Yes sir."

"And don't mention Rory to your father. They had an altercation at her grandmother's party last week."

"They did?" he asked confused, "Paris didn't say anything about that."

"He was witness to this newfound attitude you claim she has. She made it perfectly clear that she knew exactly where you were and not in Switzerland. He's livid, you know you weren't supposed to tell anyone where you were going."

Tristan sighed. "I couldn't leave and not say goodbye to her. She's important to me."

Janlen nodded. "I understand. I'll pick you up at the airport Friday. I'll have your tickets delivered over tonight."

"Thank you," Tristan said graciously.  
"You're welcome. Give the girl some closure. All I can guarantee you is a weekend."

xxxxxx

Three hours later, true to Janlen's words, he was holding a plane ticket to Connecticut. It wasn't first class, like he was accustomed to, but that was irrelevant. He was going home. Home to fix the damage he had caused before he left; to fix what he'd broken. He refused to entertain the notion that he couldn't fix it, that the mess he'd created for her was too extensive. He didn't care what he had to do, as long as he helped her.

He was staring at the ticket, his own personal lifeline to Rory, when Sam walked in.

"What do you have there?" Sam asked curious of the piece of paper that Tristan hadn't removed his eyes from.

Tristan looked up. "Oh, it's a plane ticket home."

"Cool, when do you leave?"

"Friday. Really early too."

"How early?"

"5:50. So not really early for here but still."

Sam nodded. "You gonna take care of your girl?"

Tristan sighed. "I told you she's not my girl."

"Still..."

"I'm going to try," Tristan said softly. "I'm going to try."

xxxxxx

Monday rolled around and Rory was finally able to go back to school. She entered and was immediately met by Paris. Paris had been acting strangely all weekend. She had been yoked to her phone, and had even snuck away several times to have secret conversations. Rory mused that maybe Paris had a secret boyfriend, but Paris had shot that theory down flat. "What's up Paris?" she said confused.

Paris shrugged. "Thought you shouldn't have to go in alone."

Rory smiled. She hadn't thought it was possible but Paris had really stepped up to be her friend. Ironically, it was Tristan that had been keeping them apart and now it was Tristan that had brought them together. Thinking of Tristan made her frown, but she had resolved over the weekend that she couldn't keep doing this.

She had to be stronger. No one was going to back off unless she made them. And that meant no more crying over Tristan. No more screaming matches with Summer, or Duncan, and Bowman. And no more staring off at Tristan's table or lingering by his locker. She couldn't keep putting herself out there only to be kicked by Chilton. Getting suspended had been the last straw for her.

She was so deep in her own thoughts she hadn't realized Paris had been talking to her. "Huh, what? I'm sorry, what did you say Paris?"

"I said, incoming Summer at 2 o'clock."

Rory shrugged and continued walking past Summer. She pushed Summer's voice out of her head and bit her tongue to distract herself. Before she knew, it they were in class and Rory could let the breath she hadn't realized she was holding out.

"I'm impressed," Paris said.

"I can't keep crying here," Rory said quietly. "I can't keep setting myself up for these people. I got suspended Paris."

"I know."

"That's going to go on my permanent record."

Paris nodded.

"Harvard is going to see I got kicked out of school for fighting!" she said suddenly realizing it.

Paris was about to comment but the teacher came in and started the class. Paris sighed nervously. Rory seemed to be turning it all around on her own. Maybe she had made a mistake calling Tristan so soon.

AN: FYI Hartford's police chief at the time this story takes place was really named Bruce Marquis. I didn't make him up. And there really is a flight leaving Wilmington (which is where I decided Tristan was) and heading into Hartford next Friday at 5:50 AM with plenty of seats available incase you want to call your travel agents...


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Monday had sped by and before Rory knew it was Tuesday. She had been surprised to see that people left her alone on Monday. For the most part, it hadn't been as difficult to ignore the whispering or the snickering as she thought it would be. With Duncan and Bowman both still suspended the only person really out to get her now was Summer. Rory was finding it easier and easier to tune her out---that was, of course, _before_ Tuesday and _before_ the picture.

Summer had been shooting her troubling glares all morning; and, Rory wasn't an idiot. She knew that even though it was easy to tune Summer out when she was without an audience, the cafeteria would soon be crowded by over-privileged Chilton students, and Summer loved to perform for them. So with that thought in mind, Rory wasted no time getting out of the classroom as soon as the lunch bell rang.

She'd intended to sit in the library, the only place in the school with no chance of Summer and/or her entourage hounding her. She couldn't have lunch in there, which wasn't a problem considering she hadn't had much of an appetite lately anyway, but she could sit and absorb herself in peace and quiet and literature.

She'd been in such a hurry to shove her things into her locker that she almost missed something falling from it. Leaning down to pick whatever it was off the floor, a task she had no idea she'd later regret, she grasped the object in her hand. She picked it up and upon further inspection she surmised it was a photo.

She flipped it over, coming face to face with Tristan. Her eyes closed quickly as she felt like she'd been punched in the gut. All the air had rushed from her lungs and her fingers gripped tighter around the picture. She opened her eyes and locked her gaze on the photo. It took a moment for her to realize that she wasn't just looking at Tristan, but at Summer as well. _Was I really so entranced by seeing Tristan that I missed the she-devil herself? _All thoughts of Tristan were quickly replaced with thoughts of anger.

Rory's eyes instantly darkened as she looked around the hallway to see if Summer had stuck around. She moved to rip the photograph to shreds when she noticed the caption. How she'd missed it before she didn't know. She didn't even notice Paris until she felt the photo being removed from her grasp.

"_Game on Bitch?_ Really?" Paris asked surprised and annoyed after seeing the caption on the photo. "Is that supposed to be some kind of threat?"

Rory shrugged before slamming her locker shut. "I don't know," she said trying to remain calm.

Paris rolled her eyes. "What's she trying to prove?

"I don't know. And I don't care," Rory said trying not to envision ripping her to shreds and not just her photo.

"I understand you're trying to move past all this, but this has to be bothering you."

Rory shook her head. "If she knows that, she'll never stop."

Paris nodded as she saw Rory's eyes trail back to the picture. She saw an uncertain amount of sadness in Rory's eyes and sighed. "He didn't even care about her."

"Says the girl who's holding the picture of his face attached to Malibu Barbie's lips." Rory snapped bitterly.

Paris sighed. "That doesn't mean anything and you know it. Tristan kissed a lot of girls," she said before realizing that probably wasn't going to help. "But it never means anything."

Rory shot her a look of sadness. _Was that true? Did a kiss with Tristan really mean nothing?_ She couldn't help but wonder what that said about the kiss they'd shared at Madelyn's. She couldn't help but now wonder if she herself had been one of those meaningless kisses. "You're not really helping, Paris," she said, her voice stronger than she felt it had the right to be.

The melancholy expression on her face was enough for Paris to shut her mouth. She sighed wearily. "So, what do you want to do?"

Rory shrugged her shoulders in a clueless gesture and took the picture from Paris. Taking a deep breath, she glanced at Tristan again. This time taking special care to look closely at him and block out the image of Summer attached to his cheek. She could tell by looking at him that he wasn't happy he was being photographed. Looking into his eyes, she could see no twinkle; and, despite the fact that he was smiling, it was obvious he wasn't happy at all. _Even when he was "happy" he was miserable_ Rory thought to herself. With that realization, she felt tears stinging her eyes and thrust the picture at Paris. "Get rid of this," she said tersely wanting to get rid of the proof of his misery–as if the very act of disposing evidence of his unhappiness would somehow nullify it and as if it would somehow make them all feel better.

Holding the picture in her hand, Paris watched as her best friend turned and stormed off in the direction of the library. As she did so, a thought suddenly occurred to her... M_aybe, Summer just needs a little reality check..._

xxxxxx

Finding Summer hadn't been hard. She was sitting in the middle of the cafeteria at her usual table, gloating. Paris strode to her table on a mission. "Summer." she snapped angrily.

"What can I do for you Paris?" Summer asked her voice full of fake sincerity.

Paris smirked before slamming the picture down on the table. "I thought I'd return this."

Summer smiled widely and looked around the cafeteria. "I take it Rory didn't like it. I mean she's not here, should I start looking for the nearest bathroom. If she's sobbing she shouldn't be alone..."

"_Game on Bitch_?" she asked pointing to the caption.

"Just a friendly reminder."

"Of what? That you're a Bitch. Don't worry she won't forget that."

"Now, now, Paris, no need to be so snippy."

"Shut up!" Paris snapped, "Your little plan back-fired. She didn't care one way or the other..."

"Oh I doubt that," Summer interjected.

Paris rolled her eyes. "You really are clueless aren't you? You think he cared about you because he spent one night chasing you around at a party begging for your attention? Newsflash, he didn't. He despised you, Summer, but your brown hair and blue eyes were enough for him to pretend you were Rory." Paris snapped noticing for the first time that the cafeteria had gone completely silent. They were all listening to her and they were all waiting for what would come next.

"Does it make her feel better to think that?" Summer asked visibly annoyed.

Paris scoffed. "Did you ever wonder why the two of you never talked? Why he was always kissing you? He knew the second you opened your ignorant mouth that you'd ruin his fantasy. As long as you kept your mouth shut, he could keep on pretending you were the shy, brown haired, blue-eyed bookworm he had fallen in love with."

Summer remained silent. She couldn't think of what to say. She looked back down at the picture of him smiling at her, as if it would somehow give her some kind of reassurance, but she kept coming up empty.

"Even when everyone thought he'd quit chasing after her, he was done with you. That's what really bothers you. He's still chasing her and..."

"Still? Not much chasing can occur when he's not in the same country." Summer pointed out.

"And, the fact that he's still trying, despite the Atlantic Ocean between them, really tells you something doesn't it?" Paris asked quickly. It wasn't really a lie. Even from North Carolina, Tristan was still racking his brain trying to think of ways to make Rory feel better, to make her see he cared. She reached down and snatched the photo away from Summer and tore it, effectively separating her and Tristan. She threw the half of Summer back on the cafeteria table before sticking the half with Tristan in her jacket pocket. "You know you're right. I think Rory would like this," she snapped before turning on her heel and leaving Summer flabbergasted and no longer gloating.

xxxxxx

Somehow knowing that he was going home on Friday morning, that he would get to see her; made military school a little easier. He still despised his teachers and the majority of his classmates, but it didn't seem as important. He kept thinking of what he'd say to her when he saw her again. Would she be happy to see him? Would she slap him for causing her so many problems and then leaving her pick up the mess he'd left behind? Would he even be able to help her? Would she even want his help? Would she simply resent him for leaving all over again when the weekend was over?

He knew it wouldn't be long until he had the answers to those questions. He imagined their reunion many ways and not a lot them didn't involve her yelling at him for invading her personal life. And despite Paris' admission that Rory missed him, very few of those imagined reunions involved her being pleased to see him. Although, a few did involve a chick fight breaking out between her and Paris and that thought alone made him smile.

Feeling the buzzing electronic in his pocket he discretely pulled out his cell phone. He had been avoiding Paris' calls. Mainly because he didn't want her to know he was coming. He didn't want her to tell Rory, and he didn't want her to have to walk around on eggshells around her if he told her. He quickly silenced the call and opened the text message window. After sending a text that read _in class I'll call you later_ he sighed and closed his phone. He'd have to tell her something. If he didn't, he wouldn't have to worry about Rory's reaction to his return; Paris would kill him when he got there.

xxxxxx

Paris hadn't had a chance to talk to Rory since before lunch, but now the end of the day was upon them, and she was finally going to get her chance. Tristan's text message had irritated her, but she knew that her irritation with Tristan was no where close to Rory's irritation with Summer. "Rory," she said before Rory could leave the classroom.

Rory sighed. "What Paris?"

"Can we talk?"

"About what?"

Paris handed Rory the torn picture of Tristan. "This."

Rory stared down at the picture for a moment before sticking it in her pocket. "I asked you to get rid of this..."

"I thought you'd like to..."

"Not start a war with Summer." she sniped.

Paris looked at her strangely. "You can't seriously be mad at me for standing up to her, especially since you wouldn't."

Rory scoffed. "I've been doing nothing but standing up to her since Tristan left. She's all over me, and you've just made it worse, Paris."

"How? Tell me how I made it worse." Paris snapped.

"Telling her Tristan was only with her because she reminded him of me! What part of your brain thought that was a good idea?" she yelled exasperated.

Paris sighed. "I didn't tell her anything that wasn't the truth."

"That's not the point. And you don't know that's why he was with her!"

"Rory..."

"But now, she's never going to leave me alone. And whatever she does next, I can guarantee will be better than sticking a picture of them kissing in my locker. She's not going to stop until she breaks me now. And it's your fault," she snapped. She desperately wanted to cry. Paris had basically thrown her into raging rapids and inadvertently left her without any kind of life preserver.

Paris watched as Rory pulled her book bag back on to her back and started to leave the room. "Where are you going?"

"To catch my bus," she said trying to hold back the tears she knew would come the second she had a moment alone.

"I'll drive you home." Paris offered feeling guilty. She could tell that Rory was really upset and she felt horrible about it, knowing that even though it hadn't been her intention she had made it worse for Rory.

"No thank you." Rory snapped before leaving.

xxxxxx

It wasn't until she was sitting in Luke's did she trust herself to pull out his picture. She was surprised she had made it all the way here without crying to begin with. If she'd done it on the bus, she knew she wouldn't have been able to hold back; but here at home, like Chilton, there were people she knew, people she didn't want to see her break down. Looking at the picture made her feel worse about the way she treated him. She could see the misery so clearly in his eyes, but what she couldn't figure out is why she'd never seen it before. When he'd been a constant presence in her life, she had simply believed that his smiles were genuine, that he truly loved the life he lived. It had never occurred to her that the only true, genuine smiles he'd ever used were used solely for and with her. Sighing sadly, she looked up from the picture only to be met with Jess' gaze.

"What are you looking at?" Jess asked curiously.

Rory shook her head. "Nothing," she said defensively trying to stick the photo back in her pocket before he saw it.

"You just zoned out for ten minutes looking at nothing?" he questioned disbelievingly.

"Uh-huh," she said nodding.

Jess laughed. "You do know I don't believe you, right?"

"Yes."

Jess laughed again and sat down next to her. "Show me."

"No," she said determinedly.

Jess sighed. "Come on, Rory. One of these days you're going to have to trust someone enough to tell them what's going on. You obviously don't trust Lorelai..."

"I trust Mom."

"Not enough apparently. You kept this Tristan thing from her for months before you told her anything."

"You don't know the first thing about Tristan..."

"I know that you're holding a picture of him in your pocket."

"And how do you know that?"

Jess smiled sadly pushing a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Because the only time you look this sad is when you're thinking about him," he said softly before getting up and leaving the table.

Rory pulled the picture out one last time to look at it and sighed. _Since when did he get to know me so well?  
_  
xxxxxx

Wednesday was spent walking around on cautiously. Rory could tell just by looking at Summer that the girl was plotting something. She spent the entire lunch period in the library again, avoiding everyone. She still wasn't talking to Paris when Thursday rolled around. She knew that by the end of the day, she would have to cave and give in, but that didn't mean things wouldn't be tense between them for a while.

The second she stepped onto Chilton's grounds on Thursday, she knew something was different. Everyone was back to calling her Mary; and as if that wasn't enough, she kept coming across pictures of Tristan. She had spent her morning gathering up the ones she came across and by lunch time she had over twenty pictures. Rolling her eyes in annoyance she spotted Summer across the cafeteria and headed in her direction. She dumped the entire stack of them onto the table and smiled as Summer looked up at her. "And you think I'm obsessed with Tristan. I mean seriously, look at this Summer. This is ridiculous. I didn't care about your other picture why would these bother me."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mary..."

"And enough with the Mary... it doesn't bother me like you think it does." she said informatively before pointing to the pictures again, "Your photo copier is probably running low on toner or something by now. Why don't you move on and get a hobby or something."

"Excuse me?"

"He doesn't want you. He never really did. The night you broke up with him, he told me that he never wanted to be with you again. That the two of you were never getting back together. So why don't you move on. He did," she snapped before turning to leave.

"You're a bitch." Summer sniped.

Rory laughed. "I'm ok with that." she said turning to leave.

Summer waited until Rory was almost gone before speaking again. Paris had publicly humiliated her on Tuesday, and there was no way Rory was going to get away with it today. "And you think he wants you?" she called out. "Seriously Mary, you were nothing but a notch on his bedpost."

"Summer..." one of her friends started; every one of them had realized that this was going too far. Summer was out of control.

"You weren't anything real to him, Rory. He used you---just like he used every other girl in this school. He was only after one thing. You were just a conquest for him; and judging by your response to his absence, I'm guessing he _conquered_ you," she sniped venomously.

Rory stood silent trying desperately to stop the tears from coming. She could feel them rising in her eyes and the bile rising in her throat.

"Come on, Mary. Aren't you going to deny it? Tell me you never slept with Tristan?"

Rory tried to form the words but they wouldn't come to her. _Say something! Anything! The longer you stand here in silence the more they're going to believe her!  
_  
"Hmm... guess not. Looks like our little Virgin Mary is a Magdalene after all."

Rory turned around and looked at Summer and her friends. She could see several of them hanging their heads in shame. It was obvious to Rory that they knew Summer had gone to far. "I have never done anything to you," she said softly.

Summer grinned. She was pleased that the tears were now pouring freely from Rory's eyes. "I'm just trying to get you admit what we've all known from the beginning. He didn't care about you. He didn't love you. He didn't want you. He wanted to get in your pants and that's it. You were nothing to him," she said smiling wider as Rory's eyes closed. _Any minute now and she'll be sobbing._ "In fact, he left because of you."

That had apparently been enough to bring her over the edge because before she knew it she was sobbing. _Pull yourself together Gilmore. You can't let them see you like this_.She knew she would have to say something, anything before she could leave the cafeteria but it was as if her mouth had been glued shut.

"Enough." Came a voice from the doorway.

Summer turned towards the voice and her face blanched. "Mr. Medina."

Max glared at her. "Office now, Ms. Roberts."

"But..."

"Now," he bellowed. "And don't think for a second that you're going to weasel your way out of this again," he snapped quietly as she passed him. "I'll meet you there." The cafeteria was silent as he made his way over to Rory, who was still sobbing. "Are you ok?" he asked her gently while putting his hand on her shoulder.

Rory shrugged off his touch as if it burned. "Don't, you'll only make it worse."

Max nodded. "Do you need to go home?"

Rory looked around the cafeteria. She knew she should stay and finish the day but there was no way she'd get any work done with everyone, including the teachers staring at her like she was going to have a nervous breakdown any minute now. She nodded quickly while trying to get herself under control.

He nodded. "Alright, I have a free period after lunch, I'll take you myself."

She shook her head. "You don't have to do that."

Max smiled at her. "I want to. Come on," he said gesturing towards the exit.

The cafeteria was silent as they watched them exit. No one knew what would happen next and no matter what punishment would be imposed things were not looking too pretty for Rory or Summer.


	24. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The ride to Stars Hollow was long and silent. Not a single word was spoken and the only sound in the car was the faint music coming from the radio and frequent sniffling from Rory. It wasn't until they were parked in her driveway that Max finally spoke. "Are you ok?" he asked concerned. In the months that he had been seeing her mother, he had come to think of Rory as his daughter. Watching Summer berate her, seeing Rory sobbing in the cafeteria in front of everyone, he knew he had to step in. He couldn't stand to see her hurt again, not this time, not when he could do something to stop it.

Rory nodded. "I'm fine," she lied. She had been trying to gain control over her emotions the entire way home, and she wasn't sure she'd actually accomplished it. She knew the things Summer had said weren't true, or at least she hoped they weren't.

Max sighed. He knew she wasn't ok; there was no way after what he witnessed today that she could just... be ok. "I know you don't think so, but it really will be ok. People will forget about this. There is no reason for you not to walk into that school with your head held high. Summer is the one who should be ashamed of herself."

"What's going to happen to Summer?" she asked curiously.

Max shrugged. "I'm not sure. Chilton has always encouraged academic rivalry, but something like this hasn't happened in a long time. Emotional harassment is a completely different thing."

"But she'll be in school tomorrow, right?"

Max nodded. "Most likely."

Rory nodded. "Ok. Good."

"Good?" Max repeated confused. "How can you construe that as a good thing, Rory?"

"It's time for this to end, once and for all. I can't keep doing this. I'm missing too much school, and I'm tired of all the whispering."

"I know, but how do you propose you're going to end it?"

Rory shrugged. "I don't know yet. I'm sure I'll think of something," she said before opening her door. "Thanks for the ride home, Max."

Max smiled. "No problem, Rory." He watched as she climbed out of his car and headed up the walk towards her front door. He waited until he was sure she was inside before leaving.

Rory watched him pull out of the driveway, grateful to finally be alone. She headed into her room and pulled out her cell phone. _'Can you meet me after school; I need to talk to you. I'm already home.'_ she texted. A few moments later, her cell chimed alerting her to a new message.

'_So am I. Where do you want to meet?'_  
_  
'I'm on my_ way.'

'My house.'

Rory sighed and closed her phone again. Now she just had to wait.

xxxxxx

It seemed almost instantaneous. She pulled the box down from the closet and felt tears well in her eyes. She knew she had taken him for granted. She hadn't wanted him around until he wasn't there any longer. She hated how hypocritical she was becoming.

She had just pulled a copy of Romeo and Juliet out of the box when Jess walked in the back door.

"Rory!" he called out.

"In here!"

Jess smiled at her when he walked into her bedroom. "What are you doing home?" he asked. As soon as she locked eyes with him, he knew why. "Who'd you get into a fight with this time?"

Rory smiled slightly. "Summer, again."

Jess laughed and sat on her bed. "I take it, it ended badly?"

Rory nodded.

"So what's up? What did you want to talk about?" Jess asked her softly.

Rory nodded and dumped the box out on her bed. "This is my Tristan box." she said calmly. Then she walked over to her night stand and pulled a picture out of the drawer. "And this," she said handing the picture to him, "this is Tristan, and I miss him."

Jess looked at the picture and then back up at Rory. "Well, I already knew that."

"Shut up Jess," she said laughing. "The first thing Tristan said to me was 'Hey, Mary', and I was hooked. Not in the way he wanted, mind you, but I was hooked. He offered to let me borrow his notes, which would have been useless considering he had been gone the whole week before. Also the offer would have been more sincere if he wasn't leering at me the way he was." she said laughing softly

"Ror..." Jess said confused.

"Just let me get this all out. You've been bugging me for weeks to talk to you, that's what I'm doing."

"OK," he said making a promise to himself to talk as little as possible. If she needed to get it all off her chest before she could feel better again, he would gladly sit in silence and allow her to do it.

"I really thought I despised him. He wouldn't call me by my name, always Mary. It was irritating. He was irritating. He always made me feel like he was picturing me naked. He made me nervous, and what's worse was that he knew it."

"That's never good." Jess threw in.

"He was so sure I liked him. He kept asking me out, and I kept turning him down and he wouldn't give up."

"He liked you." Jess added.

Rory nodded. "I didn't know that. I had heard all the stories about him. He was Chilton's playboy. All the girls _knew_ him. And then he found out about Dean."

"How?"

Rory laughed a little. "I took Dean to a formal at Chilton that Tristan tried asking me to."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, I think I hurt his feelings. Anyway when we got there, he stared at us the majority of the night and then picked a fight with Dean, over me. Afterwards, Dean kept telling me that Tristan had a thing for me, and I refused to believe him. I kept saying that it was just a game Tristan was playing, but he just kept saying,'He has a thing for you Rory'."

Jess laughed. "Well, he did, didn't he?"

Rory nodded. "Yes. Anyway a few months later, when me and Dean broke up, I went to this party at Madelyn's house. Tristan was there and his girlfriend broke up with him. We were alone in a room sitting on a piano bench, and we were just talking. It was nice. There wasn't anyone there to judge us, just me and him. Anyway, somehow we ended up kissing. I immediately pulled away, started crying and ran off. I spent the rest of the night curled up on the couch eating ice cream and crying because I had just kissed Tristan, and I wasn't over Dean."

Jess sighed. "I bet Tristan loved that, you crying after he kissed you. Guys have this thing called ego, you probably shattered his."

"Then a few days later, we were forced to do a project together. And we talked some more. I tried explaining that the crying had nothing to do with the kiss, but I don't think he believed me. He said he was upset over Summer..."

"Wait...Summer, the girl you keep fighting with?"

Rory nodded. "Yeah that's her. Anyway, he said he was upset over Summer and I said I was upset over Dean, but then I reiterated that the kiss wasn't what made me cry. I told him it was a nice kiss, and he suggested we do it again. He said he was done with girls for a while and I mentioned that he didn't have to be done with girls, just a certain type of girl. I suggested someone smart, driven, has ambition..."

"Where you talking about yourself?" Jess asked curiously, "Because Rory that's you. And he probably thought you were talking about yourself."

Rory shook her head. "I suggested Paris."

"Paris Geller?"

Rory nodded. "And he did, taker her out. Later, I found out he only did it because I asked him to. But Paris came in the next day and she was talking about how he'd kissed her goodnight and I felt..."

"Jealous?" Jess supplied.

Rory nodded. "I didn't expect it, it came out of nowhere."

"It usually does." Jess admitted.

"Paris freaked out and went off on me, so I turned around and went off on him. He admitted he was still hung up on someone else, and stupid me, I thought he was talking about Summer."

Jess laughed. "You're so clueless."

"Apparently. So we agreed to be friends, and everything was fine until he bought me PJ Harvey tickets."

"But you love PJ Harvey..."

"I know he heard me mention her and bought the tickets, assuming I'd go with him. He wanted it to be a date. I said no. Then he told Paris I had agreed to, even though I didn't. She flipped out on me, even though I still wasn't going. He kept insisting that I was, and finally when Friday rolled around he asked me when he should pick me up."

"Persistent."

"Very. I told him I wasn't going and he stole my books. He told me I could have them back when I agreed to go with him. I got mad and stormed out of Chilton only to be met by Dean."  
"You guys were still broken up, right?"

Rory nodded. "I had been trying to see him all week; he thought I wanted him back."

"Did you?"

"I thought I did. Really, I just wanted everything to go back to normal," she admitted, "So then he sees me with Tristan and gets angry and goes to leave. I called after him, made a big proclamation about hating Tristan and told him that I loved him."

"Ouch."

Rory sighed. "I can still hear the noise my books made when Tristan dropped them on the ground. It was easily the loudest 'thud' I've ever heard. I really hurt his feelings, and I couldn't take it back, not without destroying Dean."

"You didn't mean it."

Rory shook her head. "No I didn't. I didn't hate Tristan. I liked him, I thought we were doing ok being friends. Evidently I was wrong."

Jess reached out and placed his hand on Rory's comfortingly. "You just didn't know."

"I didn't want to know. I didn't want to see him the way he saw me. I was a scared little girl who was too worried about doing the wrong thing, hurting the wrong people. It never occurred to me that was exactly what I was doing. We came back to school after the summer and he was different."

"Different? How?"

"He had fallen in with these horrible guys..."

"Duncan and Bowman?"

"Yes, anyway he was spending more time on suspension; and when he was in school, he was doing stupid things to get himself suspended."

"That's not your fault."

Rory nodded. "Logically I know that, I do. It's just if I hadn't been so... if I hadn't said what I said... maybe he'd... I don't know, maybe he wouldn't have befriended them."

Jess shook his head. "You couldn't have stopped that."

"If I had been paying more attention to what he was going through, if I hadn't been so obsessed with making things with Dean work, even though I knew they weren't the same... The point is, I should have seen him slipping, and I should have tried to help."

"What would you have done, Rory? I mean really, what could you have done?"

Rory shrugged. "I don't know...something. We got stuck together in another project..."

"The Romeo and Juliet play?"

She smiled and reached out, running her fingers up the spine of one of the books. "Yeah, he was Romeo...I was Juliet."

"How fun." he said smirking.

"I went to Tristan and begged him not to say anything about the kiss to Dean. I went on and on about how things were good between me and Dean, and if you could have seen his face and heard the way his voice dropped when I said that you'd have smacked me. And still I was oblivious to it, blinded by my own desire to cover my butt and make sure Dean knew nothing about this kiss that lasted less then thirty seconds."

"I highly doubt I would have smacked you, Ror."

"You should have. I tried talking to him about Duncan and Bowman, but he got all defensive and then stormed off."

"How mature."

"Tristan took great pleasure in shoving the play down Dean's throat, while complying with my request, and Dean blew a gasket about it. He showed up at all the rehearsals, watching Tristan like a hawk..."

"Which only irritated Tristan right?"

"Exactly. Tristan was about to run his mouth about the kiss, so I asked Dean to leave."

"Oh, I bet that went well."

"He got mad because I told him to stop challenging Tristan and left. Tristan then proceeded to act like a jerk and I laid into him. I told him that he made it difficult for anyone to be nice to him. I basically called him pathetic, and said he wasn't worth the amount of suffering people had to go through to be his friend. And he got really offended and hurt. You would have smacked me again."

"I wouldn't have smacked you the first time," Jess pointed out, even though he didn't think she was listening.

"He left and went out with Duncan and Bowman. He was upset and they broke into Bowman's dad's safe."

"Uh-oh."

"The silent alarm went off and the police came. The authorities agreed to let the parents handle it. That's when Tristan's dad decided to pull him out of school and send him away to military school in North Carolina."

"Harsh."

Rory nodded, tears starting to fill her eyes. "He came back to let someone know he wouldn't be able to do the show, and he picked me. He told me everything. I tried to rationalize a way for him to get out of it, but he said it was no use. I was crying, I'm sure he was confused by that because I was, and he said "I'd kiss you goodbye, but your boyfriend is watching." Then he said, "Take care of yourself, Mary," and then left. And I'm standing there crying like an idiot, missing him already." Her voice spoke softly, sadly remembering the bittersweet farewell with tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Rory..."

"And I knew it was my fault."

"It wasn't your fault."

"It was, he only pulled that stupid safe prank because of the things I said to him. I hurt his feelings and I made him angry and he went out and did something stupid and got sent away for it."

"But you can't blame yourself for that Rory. You weren't in control of him. You weren't his girlfriend, you weren't really his friend. You had no obligation to..."

"I had an obligation to be a human being!" she yelled, "Instead I treated him like a nuisance. I haven't any right whatsoever to be as affected by his absence as I am, and yet I can't shut it off. Nothing has been the same since he left. I can't go to school without being targeted by people he left behind. I can't even look at Ms. Patty's piano, because it reminds me of him. Everything reminds me of him, and I don't understand how it happened, but it did and I can't move past it. God knows I tried, but I can't." she admitted before breaking into sobs.

He pulled the inconsolable girl against him. "It's ok. It's all going to be ok. You'll see." he murmured against the top of her head. "You didn't cause this; it's not your fault. He doesn't blame you."

"You don't know that," she mumbled into his chest "You never even met him."

Jess ran his hand comfortingly up and down her back. "He could never blame you for this. He cared about you enough to explain it all to you. He didn't want you to worry about him."

"Or maybe he just wanted me to feel guilty."

Jess laughed. "Maybe, but I doubt it. He cared about you; he wouldn't want you hurting like this."  
Rory pulled away from Jess. "You sound so sure."

Jess nodded and pulled her back into his arms. "I am." he said confidently despite the fact that he wasn't. She was right; he didn't know this Tristan guy. Still, he knew Rory, and if the guy cared about Rory the way it was obvious he did, he would never want her suffering like this. "You need to go back to school tomorrow with your head held high, ignore Summer and her cronies, and know that he cared about you, no matter what they say."

Rory nodded. "I think I can do that." Talking about Tristan had made her feel better, more confident in her belief that she wasn't something meaningless to him like Summer implied. She could move on past this, put it all behind her.

"You want me to stay a little while longer?" Jess asked.

Rory shook her head. "Thanks, but no. I have some things I have to do."

Jess smiled. "Ok, call me if you need something."

"I will," she told him. She watched him walk out of her room and called after him, "Jess!"

He stuck his head back in the door, "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Listening."

Jess smiled. "Anytime."

Rory smiled as she heard the front door close and reached for the things she had dumped out of her "Tristan Box". She picked up the books and put them back on their shelves, and then hung the costume back up in her closet. Then she pulled out her phone again and grabbed the phone number off the desk. She felt like she was finally strong enough to make this call so she dialed the number.

It rang four times before the voice mail picked up. She took a deep breath and left a message before she could lose her nerve. "Tristan, it's Rory... Rory Gilmore. I was just calling to... I don't know, see how you were doing, but you're not there. I'll call back later."

xxxxxx

She slept better that night than she had in a long time. After waking up and scaring her mom with her good mood she headed off to Chilton.

She breezed past Summer without a second thought until she felt the girl reach out and grab her arm. "Let go of me."  
"I got a month's worth of detention because of you." Summer snapped.

"And you thought you'd what? Test your luck by not only verbally abusing me, but physically abusing me as well? Don't manhandle me, Summer. I'm not one of your clones, and I'm not the docile little girl you think I am."

Summer dropped Rory's arm and glared at her fiercely. She had never seen Rory Gilmore's backbone before and she didn't like it. "Says the girl who fled school yesterday crying."

Rory shrugged. "Things change. I'm over it."

"So it doesn't bother you that Tristan thought of you as a conquest? A conquered one at that."

Rory shook her head. "No, it really doesn't. Not anymore."

"You're admitting you slept with Tristan?" she asked surprised.

Rory smiled at Summer's awestruck face. "I would rather this entire school think I slept with Tristan Dugrey than let them think I was weak enough to let you get to me, again." she snapped before storming off and leaving a shocked group of students behind in her wake.

xxxxxx

Tristan stepped off his plane and smiled happily at the feeling of warmth that rushed over him. He was home. He was the first to admit that Hartford Connecticut held more bad than good memories, but Rory was here, and that seemed to make up for the bad. He smiled as his grandfather came into his line of sight and walked over to him. "Hey Grandpa!" he said before hugging him.

"Tristan! How was your flight?"

"Long."

"It was only a few hours." Janlen said laughing.

"You know I hate flying." Tristan told him heading over to baggage claim.

"That's true, so what are you going to do first?"

Tristan sighed. He had spent the entire flight thinking about that, and he knew what he'd come up with had the possibility of ending very badly, but he couldn't wait. He had been so upset that he'd missed her call the night before but so happy to hear her voice sparkling through on his voice mail. It was obvious she was worried about him, even if he didn't already have inside information. He sighed and made the decision. He'd deal with Duncan and Bowman later, but first he had to see her. "I think I'm going to go to Chilton."  
Janlen nodded. "I thought you were going to say that," he said while watching Tristan pluck his black duffle bag from the conveyer belt. "Are you sure? I mean she's in class, right?"

Tristan looked at his watch and shook his head. "By the time I get there, she'll be at lunch."

xxxxxx

Twenty minutes later he was sitting in Chilton's parking lot thinking of the best way to approach Rory. He pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Paris, _How's Rory?_ Paris texted back _She seems better today._, he sent back before exiting the car. If she was in the library, then there was a good chance he could catch her while she was still alone.

Eating lunch in the library again.

Good, I gotta go

He headed towards the library, taking a back route that he knew not many people knew. If he was spotted by someone, it would ruin everything. He managed to slip into the library while the librarian was helping someone else and sighed in relief as he made it into the stacks without being seen.

He silently maneuvered his way through the shelves looking for Rory, when he saw someone heading his way. He moved quickly behind a shelf and smiled as he realized where he was--staring face to face with the Shakespeare section of Chilton's library. He reached for a copy of Romeo and Juliet and began flipping aimlessly through it.

xxxxxx

Rory and her new found confidence seemed to be having no problem making their way through the day, but she still found herself wanting to spend lunch browsing the library. She had a paper due and needed to get a few books anyway. She grabbed the books she needed by Chaucer, and decided to browse for a book to read for pleasure. With Tristan gone, her life had become one big emotional roller coaster and she realized she couldn't remember the last time she had read just because she enjoyed it.

She was holding a copy of Swann's Way by Proust, when she thought she heard something from behind her. A 'thud' that sounded vaguely familiar.

xxxxxx

Tristan had seen her the minute she stepped into the aisle in front of his own. Suddenly, he was struck by the thought that this was a really bad idea. She wasn't going to appreciate being blind sided. He should have just returned her call, and then if she wanted to see him he could come to Stars Hollow. A public reunion, even in an abandoned library was too much and he just knew she would kill him.

Hastily, he moved to put the book back on the shelf, but missed and managed to drop the book on the ground. He saw her head snap up in his direction, and he was glad that the rest of the books shielded him from her. He reached back down to pick up the book; and when he looked back up in her direction, she was gone.

xxxxxx

With a hint of dread, Rory turned the corner hoping that one of Summer's friends hadn't invaded her sanctuary. Instead, an involuntary gasp would escape from her when she saw a familiar-looking, blonde haired guy standing with his back to her. Rory knew she'd know that back view anywhere.

Still holding the book in his hand, Tristan was taken aback. Rory seemed to have vanished. He was mulling over his next move when he heard a slight gasp come from behind him. He turned and his heart seemed to stop. Rory. He smiled at the look of shock on her face. Like it or not, this was the reunion they were getting. He had thought long and hard about what the first thing he'd say to her would be and had finally come up with it the second he saw her face. "Hey, Mary." he said softly, echoing the first words he'd ever spoken to her.

Rory looked at him in disbelief. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. All she could do was think. _Tristan Dugrey is standing in front of me,_ she kept repeating to herself. She was almost sure she was hallucinating. _Has it really gotten this bad, that I miss him so much I've created him standing in front of me as a coping mechanism,_ she thought. Then he spoke. The words 'Hey, Mary' broke something inside of her and before she knew it she felt a tear slide down her cheek.

"Don't cry, Rory." he said softly. _This is going all wrong. She hasn't said anything and now she's crying. _"You'll break my heart if you cry."

Rory smiled finally and walked over to him. She reached out and poked him gently, experimentally.

Tristan laughed. "Rory, what are you doing?"

She shook her head. "Nothing," she mumbled under her breath before throwing her arms around him.

Suddenly it made perfect sense. Of course their reunion would take place in the Shakespeare section of the Chilton library, with one of them holding a copy of Romeo and Juliet.


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

He didn't know what he had been expecting from her, but he knew it wasn't this. Of all the possible reactions he'd envisioned, none of them involved her throwing herself into his arms. Most of the reactions had involved her smacking him for making her life so difficult. However, as surprised as he was, he wasn't about to stop her. He'd wanted to feel her in his arms since the moment he met her, and now that he had her there, he couldn't imagine letting her go.

She hadn't meant to react the way she did. She couldn't believe she had poked him like a complete idiot and then thrown herself at him. Despite her embarrassment, she couldn't bring herself to let go. She'd spent the better part of a year wishing he was home, and now he was. Not only was he here, he was _here_, holding her in his arms, clutching her with the same fervor she was clutching him. She didn't know what was going on, or why he was back in Connecticut, only that he was here, but she found herself realizing it didn't matter. She was just happy he was.

Tristan knew she would have to let go first, because he simply didn't have it in him, but it didn't seem like she was planning to anytime soon. He could feel her heart racing with the same excitement he knew his had accelerated. He shifted slightly so that he was leaning against the bookcase, allowing him to hold her tighter and use the bookcase for balance. He buried his face in her hair, inhaled the scent of her shampoo and sighed contented. "I have missed you so much, Rory." he murmured.

Rory shivered slightly as his voice vibrated against her the shell of her ear. She smiled the first real smile in months and clung tighter. "I've missed you too, Tristan," she said honestly. She wanted to stay like this forever, but she knew they couldn't. Obviously, they couldn't stand in the library hugging for the rest of the day. She felt her heart sink at the idea of letting go but ultimately decided she had to. She heard him groan audibly when she started to pull away.

Tristan pulled her back to him. "Just a moment longer," he said softly. He smiled when Rory simply let him draw her back into his arms. Taking one last deep breath of her, he released her and smiled widely as she looked at him happily.

She smiled as she realized that sometime between the first hug and the second, he'd dropped the book again. She reached down and plucked it off the floor and slipped it back onto the shelf, her arm brushing against him softly. She turned back to him, and she could tell by the look on his face he was expecting the Spanish Inquisition. "What are you doing here?" she finally asked.

Tristan sighed, unsure if he should tell her he knew everything or not. He gestured to one of the many places in the library that held chairs, "Let's sit," he said holding out his hand for her to take in his own.

Rory nodded and took the hand he offered. She allowed him to lead her to the chair and sat then smiled when he pulled his own in front of hers. "How have you been?"

Tristan sighed. "Good. Military school is hard. We get up way too early and work way too hard, but apparently they're grooming us for life," he said smirking.

Rory laughed. "Well, you didn't honestly think that military school was going to be the easiest place in the world, did you?"

Tristan shook his head. "Of course not," he answered honestly. He'd known from the minute he stepped on that plane to North Carolina, his life was going to suck from there on out. He'd never imagined that barely a year later, he'd be on another plane coming back to Connecticut for the sole purpose of seeing Rory Gilmore. "What about you? How have you been?" he asked even though he already knew the answer.

Rory nodded. "I've been ok," she lied.

Tristan sighed; he'd known she was going to say that. It would be too easy if he didn't have to pull it out of her, too easy if he didn't have to reveal he knew everything already. "That's good. I'm glad to hear that." He wanted to confront her, but there was no way he was going to spoil the moment they were having.

Rory smiled again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled this much, and she had to admit it felt good. "So are you back for good or…"

"Just the weekend," Tristan answered sadly.

Rory's smile fell to a frown.

Tristan reached out and grabbed her hand. "But, I intend to make sure that by the time I leave you're sick of me."

Rory laughed. "Do you now?"

Tristan nodded. "Yes, I do. That is unless Dean will have a problem with it. I don't want to cause problems for the two of you…"

"Dean and I broke up."

Tristan feigned surprise. He, of course, already knew that. "You don't seem to upset about it."

Rory shrugged. "I'm not. We were growing apart. We weren't right for each other anymore; I knew that before you…"

"Before I what?" Tristan prodded.

"Before you left," she admitted. "I held on much longer than I should have because I didn't want to hurt him."

Tristan nodded. "Did that work?"

She shook her head smiling lightly. "Nope, I still hurt him, I just realized that not hurting him was less important than hurting myself."

Tristan nodded. "That makes sense."

Rory nodded and sighed as her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket and groaned. She shot an apologetic look his direction. "Sorry, it's Paris. She'll just keep calling."

Tristan held up his hands in surrender. He knew she was right. "Well then, by all means, answer it."

Rory smiled. "Thanks." She flipped her phone open and held it to her ear. "Hey, Paris."

"_What are you doing Gilmore?"_

"I'm sitting in the library, why?" she said purposely leaving Tristan out of it. If she knew he was there she'd have been there in a flash, and Rory was enjoying having her moment alone with him.

"_Everyone's talking about how you shut Summer down this morning."_

"I was there, Paris, I don't need a recap," she said bitterly. She still couldn't believe that Summer had actually grabbed her in the hallway.

"_Well, aren't you feisty today? What's gotten into you?_

Rory looked over at Tristan anxiously. She could tell he was trying not to listen but she knew it was unlikely that he was accomplishing it. "Can we talk about this later? I'm in the middle of something."

"_What, did a puppy wander in there that you have to go kick?" she snapped sarcastically._

Rory laughed. "Yes, that's exactly it. You know how I feel about puppies, they must be destroyed." She said before hanging up her phone and turning her attention back to Tristan. "Sorry about that."

"No problem." He was curious as to why she hadn't told Paris he was there. Hell, he was curious as to why _he_ hadn't told Paris he was there. "Why must all puppies be destroyed?" he added inquiringly.

Rory shook her head. "It's not important."

He nodded and watched as she looked at her watch. "Tired of me already?"

"Huh?"

He pointed at her wrist. "You were looking at your watch."

"Oh," she paused, "No, it's just that lunch is almost over."

Tristan looked at his own watch. It surprised him that he could still remember the Chilton bell schedule. "You're right."

She sat there, unsure of what to say or what to do. She hated that they were going to have to say goodbye, she hated that she had to walk away from him again. "So…" she said nervously.

Tristan smiled at her nervousness. A lot of things had changed for Rory since he left but she was still the same nervous, shy girl for whom he'd fallen. "What are you doing after school today?"

"Nothing," she responded immediately. She wasn't sure if that was true, but if he was about to suggest they spend some time together it would be. She wouldn't hesitate to clear her calendar.

Tristan smiled pleased. "Do you want to get some dinner or something?"

"You're not doing anything with your family?" she asked.

Tristan shook his head. "No, I'm staying as far away from my family as possible. Well, except for Grandpa. He was the one who agreed to let me come home for the weekend."

Rory nodded, "Oh, well then sure. I'd love to have dinner with you."

Tristan smiled excitedly. Given what he knew about her year he'd known she would say yes, but for some reason he was still shocked she was willing to spend time with him. "Great."

She nodded again. "Yeah…"

Tristan laughed at her nerves. "I can pick you up from school…"

"Are you sure? I mean I found you hiding in the library for a reason. I got the impression you didn't want people to know you were here."

Tristan shrugged. "You found me in the library because I was looking for you. I don't care if people know I'm here. I just wanted to see you. So yeah, I'm sure. I'll pick you up after school."

Rory blushed slightly. He'd been looking for her, he'd wanted to see her. "Ok, so… I guess I'll see you then."

Tristan stood up and held out his hand for her again. He smiled as she took it without hesitation. "Definitely." He said entwining their hands for a brief moment before pulling her into another hug. He hadn't planned on hugging her again, but he couldn't help it. "I really did miss you, Mary."

Rory pulled out of the hug smiling. For the first time in a long time, the nickname she used to despise didn't make her feel worse. She wanted to tell him that she was miserable with him gone, that she wasn't actually alright, that she needed him back in her life, but she didn't want to make him feel anything other than the joy he was obviously feeling right now. She was saved from having to restrain her faults and further when the bell rang. "I have to go." She said her voice barely above a whisper.

Tristan nodded. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." She said forcing herself to turn away from him and walk towards the exit. She stepped out into the halls with a new sense of clarity. There was no way Summer could get to her now.


	26. Chapter 25

Ch 25

Promising his grandfather he wouldn't touch the two idiots had been one of the stupidest things he'd ever done. He regretted it immensely and immediately. However, knowing himself the way he did, he knew that just because he made the promise, didn't mean he'd ever actually intended to keep it. That was, at least, until he saw Rory. Tristan knew that if he reneged on his promise Janlen would put him and his lying ass back on the first plane out of Hartford.

A look of determination fell over his face as he stepped out of his car and onto Duncan's driveway. There was absolutely no chance he was leaving Rory again until both Duncan and Bowman understood the consequences of putting their hands on her. He promised not to touch them, he never said he wouldn't have words with them.

He knocked forcefully on the door, and hoped that Duncan's parents weren't home. He wasn't sure he'd make it through the door if they were. The door opened suddenly and a maid he didn't recognize stood inside it. He smiled politely at her as she moved from in front of the door and let him enter. At her expectant look he replied easily, "I'm looking for Duncan. Is he here?"

The maid nodded. "Mr. Raymonds is upstairs in his bedroom."

Tristan nodded. "Thanks." he told her before heading upstairs. He'd been to Duncan's house plenty of times so he knew exactly where he was going. Regardless of how many times he'd been there, he was still astounded by the lack of taste Duncan's mother had. The house was decorated in a very tacky and uncomfortable manner, and Tristan didn't understand why the woman didn't hire a decorator. He took his time walking down the bright blue hallway, rolling his eyes at the ugly pictures adorned on the walls before finally coming to Duncan's door.

Suddenly, standing there faced with Duncan's door, he wasn't sure what he was going to say. He knew he wanted to make it clear Rory was off limits, but aside from that, he wasn't sure what the exact wording would be.

One of the worst decisions he'd ever made was befriending Duncan and Bowman, and he knew that. He'd been hurting and lonely, and they were just there. Being rejected by Rory had caused more damage than he'd expected and pulling pranks with them seemed more fun than thinking about her. Not to mention, Janlen once again had grown ill and being home or at the hospital was too much for him this time around.

Once he'd been forced to partner with her group for the Shakespeare project, he'd found that acting like an idiot with them hadn't done a thing to rid her from his thoughts. The only thing it had accomplished was irritating Rory and proving to her that he was nothing but a joke, just as she suspected.

He was still lost in his thoughts of Rory, still trying to decode the proper words to direct at Duncan, when Duncan's door opened suddenly. Tristan saw a look of shock on Duncan's face and sighed inwardly. The boy looked genuinely pleased to see him.

"Tristan!" Duncan said excitedly. "Man, what are you doing here? I thought your parents had shipped you off to boarding school in Switzerland."

Tristan nodded. He didn't need the truth about where he was to become public knowledge. He was perfectly content with the school's population thinking he was enjoying himself in Switzerland. Knowing what he knew now, he wished he'd left it alone and left Rory to think the same as well. He couldn't help but think that if he'd never told her the truth, she'd have been better off.

Instead he told her and only her the truth, and hadn't even bothered to be discrete about it. He'd simply left her to fend off the wolves he called friends. He winced as he felt his anger once again come dangerously close to boiling over and turned his attention back to Duncan. He was standing there looking just as stupid as always, and Tristan wanted nothing more than to knock that stupid smirk off his face.

He still hadn't been able to come up with the perfect words to say, and it was then that he decided that he wouldn't say anything, not a single word about Rory, and wait for Duncan to hang himself. He knew, knowing Duncan, it wouldn't take long. "Yeah, I'm on break." he replied easily.

Duncan smiled excitedly and moved to let Tristan into his room. "It's good to see you. What's up?" He asked after making himself comfortable on the side of his bed.

Tristan shrugged and looked around the room. Nothing had changed. He moved to sit in one of the uncomfortable chairs the room held, before finally answering the question. "Nothing much. I was forced to come home for break," he said his voice laced with fake bitterness.

"I heard Switzerland is really cool," Duncan said understandingly. "I bet there's a lot of Swiss babes there just itching to get a turn with you."

Tristan nodded. "I'm thinking of installing a revolving door," he quipped half heartedly before changing the subject. "What's going on here in Connecticut?"

Duncan shrugged his shoulders bored. "Not much. The females at Chilton are still mourning your loss."

Tristan's raised his eyebrows at that. "Really?"

Duncan nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah, Summer and Rory have been going at it like cats and dogs over you."  
_  
Bingo. _"Rory?" Tristan asked, "Rory Gilmore?" At Duncan's nod, Tristan smirked slightly. "Who'd have thought she'd miss me?"

Duncan laughed. "Well, she misses you alright. You'd get a kick out of it actually, seeing her crying all over Chilton. Who knew all you had to do to get the girl was disappear."

Tristan's jaw tightened. "You think I'd enjoy seeing her crying all over Chilton?" he asked with slight annoyance, "Speaking of Chilton, I went by there earlier around lunch time."

"Yeah?" Duncan asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to see if you and Bowman wanted to skip out and go hang out like we used to, but someone said you were both suspended."

Duncan shrugged. "Yeah, for two weeks, but today was the last day. We head back Monday," he said carelessly.

Tristan nodded. It was obvious from Duncan's tone that the suspension hadn't fazed him a bit. "What did you guys do this time? Move Charleston's office furniture to the roof again?" he asked laughing slightly.

Duncan rolled his eyes. "Nah man, nothing as entertaining as that. We just got in trouble for irritating another student."

"You got two weeks suspension because you irritated someone?" he asked suspiciously. "Who do you have to harass to get that kind of suspension?"

Duncan sighed. "Evidently, Medina's golden child." Duncan's eyes widened the minute he said it. Commenting on Rory's cat fights with Summer and crying binges were one thing but admitting to Tristan that he and Bowman had begun making a habit out of taunting and tormenting Rory Gilmore was not smart.

"Rory?" he asked, his voice low and menacing "You've been harassing Rory?"

Duncan flinched slightly at the frightening tone Tristan's voice had taken. "It wasn't anything major, or anything. You know how much of a pushover Gilmore is..." he said defensively.

Tristan shook his head. "It must have been pretty bad if Charleston suspended you." He couldn't believe that Duncan was still insulting her while he stood right there in front of him. "And Rory is in no way a pushover."

Duncan sighed. He really should have known better than to open this can of worms. "Look man, I know you had a thing for her and all but..."

"But what?"

"It was just harmless fun." Duncan said bored.

"Antagonizing Rory was harmless fun?" he snapped angrily. At this point his desire to continue playing clueless was overridden by his desire to smack the boy in front of him. "You knew she was blaming herself for my sudden disappearance so you kept at her and you kept at her, until she broke."

"If you already knew what happened, then why even bother pretending you didn't?" Duncan asked annoyed, "And for the record, it wasn't just me..."

"I'm hoping you'll pass the message along to Bowman."

"And what about Summer?"

"From what I've heard, I think Rory and Paris can take care of Summer on their own."

Duncan rolled his eyes. "Summer's had Rory bawling in the cafeteria for the better part of the last six months, it sounds like Rory can barely control herself, let alone Summer."

Tristan's eyes squinted in fierce anger. "So you and Bowman decided to make it worse? Was it fun? Did you enjoy badgering her, telling her it was all her fault I was gone?"

Duncan shrugged. "Right up until the moment the bitch hauled off and hit me." he admitted. He didn't see any point in lying. It was obvious Tristan knew everything.

Tristan's hands fisted tightly, and he stood up from his chair. He took several deep breaths trying to kill his desire to cross the room and break Duncan's jaw. He couldn't believe, knowing how angry Tristan was, that Duncan had the nerve to speak so negatively about Rory. "Does it really look like calling her a bitch is the smartest thing for you to say right now?"

The look on Tristan's face caused a set of shivers to run down his spine. "She had no right to hit me..." he demanded standing up from his place and the bed and taking a few small steps towards Tristan in what he hoped was a confident manner.

Tristan looked at him in disbelief and scoffed. "You made a sexual comment towards her and then tried to touch her. You're lucky all she did was slap you."

Duncan shrugged. "So what? I didn't touch her."

Tristan shook his head. "Which is why you're still standing and not lying on the ground clutching your broken jaw," Tristan pointed out carelessly. "The mere fact that you thought either of you had the right to even speak to her like that, tells me you're both stupider than I ever realized."

Duncan shook his head. "Look, man, can we just start over here. You're home and it's good to see you, despite your momentary freak out over Mary."

The word 'Mary' was enough to make Tristan's resolve falter. He crossed the room and was in Duncan's face long before he realized he'd move. "No, there is no starting over here, you jackass. And don't you dare call her that!" he yelled loudly.

Duncan laughed slightly and shoved Tristan lightly. "Why do you even care? She never gave you the time of day, Tristan. She didn't care about you at all. Not until you were gone. I bet that hurts doesn't it?"

Tristan couldn't believe that Duncan had shoved him, and he briefly entertained the idea of finally putting his hands on the boy. Surely Janlen couldn't fault him for defending himself. Tristan took a menacing step towards him and smirked when Duncan stepped back scared. "Why I care about what happens to Rory Gilmore is none of your business. I want to make this very clear to you, the next time you or one of your cronies even thinks about speaking to her or touching her, or even so much as thinking about her, I will make you regret it."

Duncan's eye twitched nervously. "I'm not scared of you."

Tristan laughed as Duncan's actions contradicted the statement. "Yes, you are. And you should be," he snarled threateningly. "Stay away from Rory," he warned before turning and walking towards Duncan's still opened door.

"I thought we were friends," Duncan called out.

Tristan turned around and glared. "You were wrong," he growled before walking out the door.

By the time he was back in his car, he was fuming. It wasn't the conversation he wanted to have and he wasn't sure if Duncan had been adequately warned; but he knew that if he had stayed any longer, he might not have been able to restrain himself from hitting the jackass. Duncan's indifferent attitude, his obvious lack of regret, and his admittance to trying to hurt Rory all made him so angry he couldn't see straight.

His good mood from earlier was gone and he missed it. He couldn't stop thinking about the way Rory had felt in his arms, the way it felt to have her pressed so tightly against him. Holding her had felt better than he'd ever imagined and it killed him to know that all he had was a weekend with her before he was forced back to North Carolina, for who knows how long. Maybe if he could convince his father that he'd behave, he could spend the summer here. A summer with Rory could do wonders for him, and for her.

He looked at the clock and sighed in relief. It was almost time to pick up Rory.


	27. Chapter 26

AN: To the reviewer who promised me cookies for an update... I prefer Snickerdoodles... LOL... Enjoy

Ch 26

It had taken Rory nearly five minutes to open her locker after leaving Tristan. She kept spacing out and turning the knob past the desired numbers. Once she'd gotten in and grabbed her books, she made a mad dash to her next class, barely entering the room on time. The smile on her face from before hadn't faltered a bit.

She took her seat and heard whispered voices. All of them talking about her showdown with Summer earlier that morning, but for the first time in as long as she could remember it didn't phase her at all. She could honestly care less what they said about her at this point. She was far too happy to let it affect her.

Concentrating on anything after lunch had proved to be impossible. Her attention was unattainable throughout the rest of her classes. All she could think about was Tristan. It was almost too much to take in and she couldn't help but feel slightly overwhelmed. She knew she'd missed him; it was obvious given the way she'd been acting, but she hadn't truly understood how much until he'd been standing there in front of her.

Paris had tried to gain Rory's attention several times throughout the rest of their classes, but it had proved futile. Still, Rory was smiling, and no matter how happy it made her to see her friend happy, it was driving Paris crazy that she didn't know what had happened to cause the euphoria. Her several whispered _What happened? _or _Why are you so happy? _, were all answered with '_Nothing'_. Whatever it was that happened must have been really good. Paris smiled, knowing that at least now she'd have something good to report back to Tristan.

By the time the last bell rang Rory was a bundle of nervous excitement. She knew Tristan was waiting for her and she couldn't stop smiling. She rushed to shove her books in her bag before rushing out of the room, with Paris hot on her heels.

Once out of the room, she heard loud voices and loud whispers but none of the could penetrate her mind. She was too focused on getting out of the Chilton and getting to Tristan. She didn't know where they were supposed to meet, but she hadn't expected to find him leaning against her locker. Her mind flashed back to all the other times she'd found him there, in the same exact position. Normally those occurrences had forced a frown to her face, but this time all she could do was grin wider.

xxxxxx

After leaving Duncan's he'd stopped briefly by the house to check in with his grandfather. He'd quickly showered and changed his clothes, trying to erase the grime he was sure he'd accumulated on the flight over. He'd been in such a rush to get to her after he'd gotten out the airport, he hadn't even bothered to think about showering first.

He spent a few minutes reassuring his grandfather that he had kept up his end of the deal so far, and then told him he'd be eating dinner with Rory. Janlen had smiled and told him he'd already assumed as much. Tristan wasted no time in leaving after that.

Once he was sitting in his car outside of Chilton, he took time to be hesitant. He couldn't remember if they'd agreed on a place to meet. His conversation with Rory was slightly blurred, since he'd been unable to concentrate on much other than the fact that he was with her. He racked his brain and finally decided they hadn't picked a place. He sighed and got out of the car. He'd told her he didn't care if people knew he was there, and he didn't to an extent. Still once he entered Chilton, he saw people's eyes on him. Whispers were running rampant already, and he'd barely made it through the main entrance. He couldn't imagine how bad it would be by the time he got to his destination, her locker.

He made it there in no time and leaned against the locker he'd spent so much time standing beside, begging for her attention. He'd heard from Paris that Chilton seemed to be the roughest place for Rory, since it was so full of memories of him. He assumed since most of their interactions had occurred in front of her locker that this would be a particularly tough place for her to be.

It hadn't occurred to him that this locker would be a space of discomfort for him as well. He had faced the majority of her rejections at this locker, and even knowing what he knew now about her feelings, it still hurt. He saw a familiar head of brown hair in the crowd and wiped the frown he didn't realize his mouth had formed and replaced it quickly with a smile. He lounged against the locker in a familiar manner and smirked widely as Paris came into view.  
Her look of complete shock told him that Rory still hadn't told her a thing about him being there. He wasn't surprised by it though; she'd already shown him once that she hadn't wanted to tell Paris of his arrival. He watched as Paris' shock changed to anger and knew he was in trouble.

He turned his attention back to Rory who was now standing in front of him. "Long time no see, Mary." he said smiling once more.

Paris watched a million emotions flicker past Rory's eyes. She couldn't believe that Tristan chose such a public reunion. Then Paris finally realized that of all the emotions she saw playing out across Rory's features, surprise wasn't one of them. She couldn't help but feel a sharp twinge of betrayal. She'd been the one who called him. She was the one who'd gotten him back in Connecticut. Granted, Rory didn't know that but still, she'd been the one holding Rory together the last few months. Rory should have told her he was here. Tristan, however, had no excuse. He knew all the work she'd put into this and for him to just show up and not even tell her was wrong. Still, Rory was looking at Tristan and he was looking back at her, and Paris knew she couldn't feel too betrayed. He'd only done what she asked. He'd found a way to help fix what he'd broken…Rory.

Rory smiled widely. "It's been what, three hours?" she asked coyly as he moved from in front of her locker so she could access it.

Tristan smirked and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Felt like forever."

Rory shivered as she felt his breath ripple across her skin. Her fingers fumbled and she missed her combination once more. She pushed him away slightly so she could concentrate and groaned in frustration when she was still unable to open her locker.

Tristan laughed and reached over, quickly spinning her combination into the lock and opening her locker. "I swear every time I'm near you, I get deja vu." he quipped.

Rory blushed slightly as she realized he'd once again slipped into an old pattern from before. She pushed her books into her locker and closed it quickly. She turned to face both him and Paris and was suddenly unsure of what to say. She could tell Paris was surprised by Tristan's presence and the fact that Rory wasn't. "Paris..."

"Why didn't you tell me he was here?" Paris hissed.

"I'm not sure. I just... I don't know... I wanted him all to myself for a little while," she admitted.

Paris turned to Tristan who was now talking to some random guy who'd approached him. "I guess I could understand that."

Rory sighed in relief. "He took me by surprise. I was in the library and he was suddenly just there. I actually worried that I'd imagined him for a brief moment."

Paris smiled. "You really did think you were going crazy didn't you?"

Rory nodded. She turned to look back at Tristan who had now attracted a small crowd, and laughed when he shot her and Paris both a look saving 'Save me". She shook her head at him, as if to say "they're your friends" and then turned back to Paris. "I can't believe he's here."

Paris nodded. "Me, either." she agreed. "You seem happy to see him though."

Rory smiled. "I am. You know I am."

Paris smiled. "Yeah, it's nice to see you smile for a change. How long is he staying?"

Rory frowned. "Just the weekend."

Paris shrugged. "That's better than nothing, right?"

"Of course. It's weird though..."

"What is?"

"I get the impression that the only reason he came back was to see me." Rory admitted, "I know that seems cocky or whatever, but it's like he knew I needed him and that's why he's back."

Paris looked down at the ground for a split second and hoped Rory hadn't noticed the guilty expression on her face. "Is that a bad thing? I mean, he's here right? Who cares why?"

Rory looked back over at Tristan and couldn't deny Paris was right. "Right." she agreed. She smiled widely as Tristan's attention turned back to her and he turned away from his group.

"You ready to go?" he asked,

She nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"I'm more than ready for some real face time with you," he admitted.

Rory blushed slightly. "Me, too."

Paris suddenly felt invisible, but it didn't bother her the way it usually would. Any other day, she'd be screaming for some attention; but, she knew it was pointless in this situation. Tristan only had eyes for Rory, and Rory only wanted to see Tristan. She reached over and touched Tristan's shoulder. "It was good to see you again, Dugrey."

Tristan nodded and pulled her into a hug. "You, too, Paris," he said before leaning down to whisper, "Thank you for calling me. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. I'm just glad Rory's not sulking anymore," she responded quickly before releasing him. She turned to Rory and smiled warmly. "Call me later ok?"

Rory nodded and waved at Paris before allowing Tristan to wrap his hand around her wrist and lead her out of the busy hallway. Her heart raced as she felt his fingers slip past her wrist and entwine with her own. They were almost to the exit when Summer appeared in front of them.

"I had to see if it was true." she replied icily.

Tristan smiled. This had been the main reason he wanted to pick her up at school. He wanted Summer to see him with Rory, for no other reason then to finally drill it into Rory's head that she was more important to him than Summer ever was. The added benefit of pissing Summer off was nice as well. He hoped that after this Summer would take the hint; or at the very least, Rory would be able to ignore her easier. "And now you have, you can leave," he told her calmly, his tone matching hers.

Summer flinched as his scornful words resonated within her. Her eyes then quickly darted downward and took in the warmly entwined fingers. Reacting with a disdainful eye roll, she seethed at Tristan, "Am I really supposed to believe you want to be with someone like that?"

Tristan shrugged. "What you believe is really irrelevant. The only person whose opinion matters to me is Rory's. As long as she knows that people like you mean nothing to me, I'm ok."

Rory smiled at Summer pleased with the look on her face before turning back to Tristan. "There's no need to be mean, Tristan," she said in fake admonishment.

Tristan sighed. "Well, I thought since she seemed so confused, I should clear it up for her." He squeezed her hand a little tighter. He wasn't supposed to know about her problems with Summer; and if they stayed any longer, he wasn't sure he could stop himself for laying into her. He smiled at Rory sweetly, "We should go though, I'm only here for the weekend and we have a lot of stuff to do before dinner tonight."

Rory nodded. "You're right, we should go," she said before softly saying, "Go on, I'll meet you outside."

Tristan nodded. He figured Rory would want to say something to Summer without him around. He squeezed her hand again, reassuringly. "Nice seeing you, Summer, let's hope it doesn't happen again," he said coldly before leaving with Paris.

Rory turned to Summer and sighed. "You know, you could have saved yourself a lot of public embarrassment if you'd just backed off months ago."

Summer rolled her eyes angrily. "Oh, shut up!" she snapped venomously, "You're fooling yourself, Rory. People like Tristan, they use people like you. You matter now, but don't kid yourself, in a few months you'll be yesterday's news."

Rory shrugged. "Try and have a nice weekend, Summer," she said calmly before following out to meet up with Tristan.

Summer watched furiously as Rory walked away from her. _I hope he crushes her_ she thought bitterly before storming off in the other direction.

xxxxxx

It hadn't taken long for Paris to snap at Tristan once they were away from Rory. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

Tristan sighed. He knew before he'd gotten back to Connecticut that this was going to happen, so he'd prepared an answer. "I didn't want you to have keep it from Rory. You were already keeping the fact that you'd spoke to me a secret, I didn't think you needed one more."

Paris shook her head. "You let me get blind-sided," she said angrily. "Do you know how angry I am right now? I mean, I called you. I told you everything. I'm the reason you know enough to know you needed to be here, and I don't even get a phone call telling me you're showing up here."

"I'm sorry," he said honestly. "I should have told you. You risked a lot to call me and tell me what was going on, and I didn't respect you enough to do the same. I'm really sorry."

Paris inhaled a breath deeply and let it go before trying to speak again. "It's ok, I guess," she said despondently. "I just wish I'd been warned. When are you going to talk to her about all the..."

"Problems she's been having since I was banished to military school?" he asked

Paris nodded.

He shrugged. "I think tomorrow, that way we can have a nice night tonight and then if she decides she doesn't want to see me..."

"Or that she hates me for telling you anything..."

"Right, she can have all day Sunday to deal with you and me," Tristan reasoned.

"Makes sense."

Tristan nodded again and smiled as he saw Rory heading in their direction. "Any advice on how to survive Stars Hollow?" he asked quickly.

"Don't alienate Jess, and don't let Luke see you touch Rory at all," she told him quickly before smiling at Rory. "Everything with Summer, ok?"

Rory nodded. "Everything's fine. I told her to have a nice weekend," she smiled coyly.

Paris laughed and looked down at her watch. "I should head home, I'll talk to you later, ok?"

Rory nodded. "Yeah, I'll call you."

"Don't leave Connecticut without telling me goodbye this time, Tristan," Paris instructed.

Tristan laughed. "I won't." He turned back to Rory after Paris was gone and smirked. "Ready to go?"


	28. Chapter 27

AN: So here it is, the long awaited update... My beloved beta and I are finally getting back into the swing of things after a nice long break. I promise it won't be as long before the next update, I've already started writing it... Enjoy!

Chapter 27

It was obvious to Tristan that he had underestimated just how much Rory wanted to see him. He hadn't expected such a warm reception; hadn't expected her to allow such a high level of physical contact between the two of them. The Rory he remembered had a fit when finding him standing too close to her. Allowing him to hold her hand while walking down the hall was something she never would have considered when he was at Chilton. She'd have never let him drive her home, but it appeared things really had changed for her. For the first time since he spoke to Paris, he knew without a doubt that Rory did have feelings for him. He wished he could say he'd always known the feelings she had were there. He'd claimed to know, told everyone else who would listen that she actually cared about him, but in all honestly it was merely a hope he'd had the entire time he'd known her. Absence had clearly made her heart grow fonder, and for that alone, he was thankful for his father's rash actions.

She hadn't said a word since they walked out of Chilton together, but that didn't surprise him. Rory had always been so private, and regardless of the fact that she was pleased to see him, he'd known that the public reaction would be a concern for her. Quiet smiles and warm looks were enough for him at this point. Still, once they were both in the closed car, no one there but the two of them, he thought she'd speak again. It turned out that he was wrong.

The ride to Stars Hollow was silent with only the sound of the car accelerating and decelerating and the music floating softly out of the radio to keep him company. Rory appeared to be lost in thought and he wasn't sure what he should say to break her out of it. For a brief moment, he wished that he couldn't remember how to get to her house, for no reason other than she'd have to talk in order to give him directions. He pushed that thought away knowing that Rory would be far more impressed with the knowledge that despite the fact that he'd only been there once or twice, he hadn't forgotten.

He passed the 'Welcome to Stars Hollow' sign and smiled before reaching over and placing his hand on top of hers. His heart raced when she turned her attention to him and smiled widely. The way her eyes lit up, the way her smile deepened, and everything that made her Rory, left him speechless. "You OK? You're really quiet." he said once they stopped at a red light. He wanted to be able to look her in the eye when she answered; wanted to make sure she was telling the truth.

Rory nodded slowly. "I'm fine. I was just thinking," she said softly.

"Oh yeah?" he asked while shooting her a questioning look, his eyebrow raised slightly. She nodded so he pressed on. "About what?" _It would be fantastic if she opened up and told him about everything now_ he thought to himself. It was selfish, but he hoped he wouldn't have to admit he knew what happened in his absence; so he didn't have to sell himself and Paris out.

Rory shrugged. "Nothing really,"she said softly before looking back down at his hand on hers. She slowly shifted hers so that they were once again holding hands and sighed happily. "I'm just glad you're here."

Tristan sighed inwardly and smiled widely at her. He noticed the light change to green and pulled back out into traffic before saying, "Me, too, Mary." He squeezed her hand lightly as she smiled back at him. He watched her out the corner of his eye as she returned back into her introspective shell, and decided to try and get the truth out of her one more time. "You sure that's it, Rory?" he asked calmly.

Rory sighed and continued to look out the window. She knew he was going to find out eventually about everything that happened while he was gone. She wished he wouldn't, but he still had some friends at Chilton and surely they'd inform him of her breakdown. Despite knowing that it would sound more reasonable coming from her, she couldn't bring herself to tell him a thing. It baffled her that he still had the uncanny ability to make her nervous no matter how tightly he held her hand. If she was honest with herself she knew it was more than likely that he always would. "Things were weird without you here," she admitted softly, her eyes never leaving the direction of the window.

"Weird how?" he asked.

Rory shrugged. "Just weird," she answered cryptically. She didn't know how to explain what happened, or why it happened, or when her feelings changed. She wanted to tell him that sitting here in his car, holding his hand felt more right than anything had in a really long time, but she didn't; she couldn't. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the sudden physical aspect of her friendship with him. She wasn't sure why she couldn't bring herself to let go of him, but she suspected it had something to do with not wanting him to leave again. "It was different at Chilton. Even though we didn't really hang out or spend any real amount of time together there, I had gotten used to seeing you and having you around making my life difficult..."

"I've missed you, too," he told her knowing that's what she was trying to say.

"You say that but..."

"But nothing, Rory," he said while pulling into her driveway. He turned the car off and turned to face her. "I do miss you. There hasn't been a day that I've been gone where I haven't thought about you," he admitted.

His expression was more serious than she thought she'd ever seen it. There was no way she could deny he was telling the truth, it was more than obvious. She hung her head slightly for a moment before looking back up at him. She hadn't been prepared for what she'd seen in his eyes; the same affection that she was sure was mirrored in her own at that very moment. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly shut it, unsure of what to say. She feared that she would spill everything, every emotion that she had bottled up over the last six months, right into his lap.

"Say something," he said gently, prodding her to speak; but instead, she remained silent. He knew he'd pushed her too far. He hadn't meant to scare her, but she needed to know that he wasn't lying, that he really did care about her more than she knew. From the look in her eyes, it was clear that same went for her as well.

Rory took in a deep breath preparing herself to speak, even though she had no clue what she was going to say. Her mouth opened, and she was convinced nothing would come from it. She was surprised when she managed to produce sound, even though it was unintelligible.

Tristan smiled slightly before reaching over and grabbing her hand gently. "It's OK."

Rory shook her head. "No, it's not," she said softly.

Tristan nodded. "Yes, it is. I caught you off guard. I shouldn't have expected you to say anything."

"But..." she started again only to be interrupted by a loud knock on the passenger side window. Startled by the noise, they both jumped and turned to look out the window. Rory gasped softly before rolling down the window. "Mom..."

"Kiddo," Lorelai said calmly while eyeing Tristan, "Tristan."

Tristan's mouth fell slightly in shock that Lorelai even knew who he was. "Ms. Gilmore..."

"It's Lorelai," she said immediately before smiling. "I have to admit I'm surprised to see you."

Tristan nodded. "It was a kind of a spur of the moment decision to come home for the weekend."

Lorelai nodded understandingly. "I can understand that. So, what made you decide to come home?"

"I had something here that I needed to take care of," he said looking covertly at Rory.

Lorelai smiled. Suddenly, she realized that Rory hadn't said a word other than acknowledging her presence since she'd shown up. "Well kiddo, are you going to invite him in or are the two of you just going to hang out in the driveway?"

Rory shot her mom an annoyed look before turning to Tristan. "You wanna come in?"

Tristan smiled. "And get the full Gilmore tour? How could I miss that?"

xxxxxx

If there had ever been a doubt in Lorelai's mind that Rory's sour mood had been about the loss of Tristan, it was erased now. She watched Rory lead him around town, her eyes sparkling with happiness, her voice full of joy, and a spring in her step. She hadn't seen Rory frown once since Tristan got there. The tour of the house had taken as much time as could be expected considering the modest size of it; and before Lorelai knew it, she was accompanying them on a trip around town. Despite his Hartford upbringing, Lorelai found herself genuinely liking Tristan. From all the stories Rory had told about her over the first year of Chilton she expected him to be pompous and arrogant. From all the stories she'd heard from Dean she expected him to be elitist and possessive. He could have been all of those things, but around Rory he was the complete opposite. In fact, he felt like a kindred spirit, a male version of Lorelai at his age.

She smiled as she watched Rory pull Tristan into Luke's. So far, everyone in town had been receptive of Tristan, welcoming him into the town and into Rory's life, but Luke was going to be different. It was no secret that Luke didn't approve of any guy in Rory's life. He'd been the first one to tell Jess, his own nephew, to stay away from Rory, and there had never been anything more than platonic feelings between the two of them. The way Tristan was looking at Rory, the way Rory was looking at Tristan, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that there was something between the two of them, and it most certainly was nothing near platonic. Luke was going to eat him alive.

Ever since they left Patty's, Rory had been giving Tristan instructions on how to stay on Luke's good side. She hadn't worried about the rest of the town's reaction to Tristan. She'd known that one look at his blond hair and blue eyes would have the women of Stars Hollow throwing their approval at him. Rory led him over to the counter and sat down "Just don't pay an excessive amount of attention to me," Rory warned, "and no physical contact, Luke won't like that."

Tristan smiled. "I can't touch you at all?" he asked smiling widely.

Rory shook her head fiercely. "No. Not at all."

Tristan sighed before reaching out and pushing a stray stand of hair behind her ear. "What happens if I do that?"

"Then you run the risk of losing your hand," Jess warned from behind the counter.

Rory laughed as Tristan jerked his hand back away from her ear. "Be nice," she directed at Jess before pointing to Tristan. "This is Tristan."

"I assumed as much," Jess said smiling before reaching out to shake Tristan's hand. "I'm Jess."

Tristan nodded. "Luke's nephew right?"

Jess nodded. "The one and only," he said before turning his attention back to Rory. "Nice to see you smiling today. It's certainly an improvement on yesterday," he told her before walking off to help customers.

Rory looked down at the counter, while making a mental note to smack Jess. She didn't look back up until she felt Tristan touch her hand.

"What happened yesterday?" he asked curiously. This was the first time he was asking a question that he actually didn't know the answer to, and her silence didn't sit well with him.

She shook her head and smiled widely at him. "It doesn't matter now," she said softly before squeezing his hand reassuringly.

Tristan smiled. "Of course it matters," he replied gently before squeezing her hand back. He expected her to pull away so when she simply held onto his hand he'd been puzzled. "I thought I wasn't allowed to touch you."

Rory shrugged.

"You said this guy would kill me if I touched you," he reminded her.

She smiled. "I'll protect you."

xxxxxx

Lorelai had seen Luke come in right after Rory had introduced Tristan to Jess and immediately swooped in to distract him. Luke had barely gotten in the door before Lorelai was pushing him back out and onto the sidewalk.

"Lorelai, what are you doing?" he demanded.

"I wanted to warn you."

"What happened? Did Jess break something? Did he try to sell the diner to Taylor again..."

Lorelai shook her head quickly. "No. It's nothing like that," she said trying to stop him from worrying. "Wait, did you say again? Jess has tried to sell the diner to Taylor more than once?"

Luke nodded his head impatiently. "Yeah, a few times, I've always managed to come in and stop it before Taylor tried some kind of verbal agreement, lawyer crap..." he told her getting sucked in for a moment before shaking his head "What did you want to warn me about?"

Lorelai sighed. "It's just that Rory's in the diner..."

"Is she still in one of those moods?" he asked concerned. "I really hoped she'd start getting better. I'm really starting to worry about her, Lore."

"She's in a mood, but this one is completely different from any we've seen in the last six months," she said smiling widely.

"You're smiling," Luke finally noticed. "She's in a good mood?"

Lorelai nodded emphatically. "Yep."

"So then why did I need a warning before entering the diner if she's in a good mood?" he asked confused by Lorelai's behavior.

Lorelai sighed slightly and absentmindedly played with a strand of her hair. "Thing is, she's not alone in there."

Luke's face paled. "Oh God, it's not Dean is it? I had really hoped we'd dodged that bullet."

Lorelai laughed slightly while shaking her head. "No, it's not Dean," she reassured him. "It's Tristan."

Luke looked confused for no more than five seconds before realization set in. "Tristan?" he asked, "The same Tristan that turned Rory into a pod person when he left?"

Lorelai smiled. "Pod person? Really Luke, I didn't even know you knew what a pod person was," she joked.

"Hey, I watch movies," he said defensively.

"And yes, it's the same Tristan, but in his defense I don't think he knew Rory was a pod person. At least not until Paris called him and told him."

"Paris called him? I thought you said that no one knew where he was," he asked confused.

Lorelai looked down at the ground anxiously. She knew Max was a sore subject for Luke. The two of them had never gotten along and she had never understood why. "Well... I talked to Max... and he agreed to help so he used his contacts and located Tristan."

Luke nodded. "Oh, of course. I don't know why you didn't go to him sooner," he said despondently. He allowed himself one more moment to sulk before looking back at Lorelai and smiling. "I guess we should head in there."

Lorelai nodded. "Probably."

Luke nodded again. "I mean how's this kid going to know he's not nearly good enough for Rory if I'm not there to tell him."


End file.
